By Mia A. Aznar
Friday, September 30, 2011
MANDAUE City found a new destination for shoppers yesterday as several stores of the J Centre Mall were opened to the public.
The mall’s anchor store, SM Hypermarket, welcomed shoppers with chants while the Watson’s Store across it opened its doors to those interested in health and beauty products.
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Robert Sun, chief operating officer of Watson’s Philippines, said their new branch at the J Centre Mall is their 258th store in the country and the 14th in Cebu.
Though the chain of stores is a joint venture between the A.S. Watson’s group of Hong Kong and the SM Group in the Philippines, Sun said they are inclined to open more stores even in malls that are not owned by the SM group, like J Centre Mall on A.S.
Fortuna in Mandaue City.
With an annual target of 40 stores a year, Sun said they are expected to open five more Watson’s store branches in Cebu. Three of these will be in the SM Consolacion while two more will be at the SM Savemore branch in Maguikay, Mandaue City.
Aside from the stand-alone stores, Watson’s also has pharmacy formats and the health and beauty section of department stores.
Despite the presence of several stores offering health and beauty products, Sun said Watson’s stands out because they offer 2,000 products exclusively sold in their stores. He added that the brand is a leader in Asia as far as health and beauty is concerned and considers their brand “health and beauty specialists.”
‘Me time’ for customers
Sun said they have positioned themselves as the go-to store for personal care.
“Eighty-five percent of our shoppers buy for themselves. When they come here, they come to indulge. When they come here, it’s ‘me time’,” Sun told reporters.
Sun added that the store takes care to make the shopping experience pleasurable for customers and that the layout and display should reflect this.
Before the year ends, Watson’s hopes to have 280 branches up and running.
As for the SM Hypermart, J Centre Mall’s anchor store, the 6,200-square-meter supermarket, offered buy-one, take-one and 80 percent discount deals. The store hopes to be the “modern household version” of a wet market, but in a cleaner environment.
By selling items by piece or in small packets, the store believes home cooks will find a similar set-up as that in wet markets, especially those who often need only small portions of a certain product to meet their budgets.
A few other stores like Converse, Aji Ichiban, South Shores and Pan de Manila also held their formal opening yesterday.
However, the mall’s grand opening is slated for November.
Published in the Sun.Star Cebu newspaper on October 01, 2011.
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