Why big supermarkets still see plenty of room outside Metro Manila - Rappler

Already have Rappler+? Sign in to listen to groundbreaking journalism.

OPENING. Government officials, Robinsons Supermarket executives, and representatives of major suppliers and business partners pose during the opening of Robinsons Supermarket Panglao in Bohol on September 4, 2026.

This is AI-generated. Read the article for full context. Report any errors.

MANILA, Philippines – Panglao island in Bohol province in south-central Philippines near Cebu already has an international airport, luxury resorts, and one of the country’s best-known beach destinations. What it didn’t have until this month was a Robinsons Supermarket.

Robinsons Retail Holdings Inc. (RRHI) opened its first supermarket in the Bohol tourism town on September 4, adding another provincial location to a food retail business that’s still heavily concentrated in and around the capital.

Panglao offers a particularly attractive provincial market because demand does not come only from residents. Robinsons said the supermarket is also targeting tourism workers, visitors, hotels, resorts, restaurants, and other businesses that need regular access to groceries and fresh food.

RRHI is pairing that expansion with another of its retail businesses. A new Rose Pharmacy also opened at the Bellemar Lifestyle Center. Rose Pharmacy, the largest drugstore chain in the Visayas and Mindanao and a part of the RRHI portfolio, now has nine stores in Bohol.

The numbers help explain why large retailers still see room to grow outside Metro Manila.

At the end of 2025, RRHI had 799 stores under its food segment, which includes Robinsons Supermarket, The Marketplace, Shopwise, Robinsons Easymart, and convenience store chain Uncle John’s. Of those, 410 were in Metro Manila. Another 308 were elsewhere in Luzon, while only 56 were in the Visayas and 25 in Mindanao.

That means RRHI had just 81 food segment stores across the Visayas and Mindanao at end-2025, compared with 410 in Metro Manila alone. The comparison is not purely about supermarkets because the figures also include convenience stores, but it nevertheless illustrates how uneven the group’s physical footprint remains.

Food is also RRHI’s biggest business. The segment accounted for 59.8% of company revenue in 2025 and generated P125.8 billion in net sales. RRHI said growth was supported by new stores as well as 3.2% same-store sales growth, giving the group an obvious incentive to keep adding locations.

The broader Philippine grocery market suggests there’s still plenty of room to do so. The 2023 National Nutrition Survey found that 66.9% of households regularly bought food from sari-sari stores and other small retailers. After all, nearly all urban and rural households had access to traditional food stores, such as wet markets, sari-sari stores, and street vendors. By contrast, only 45.6% of households shopped at modern food stores such as supermarkets and restaurants only once or twice a month. – Rappler.com