The Fast Food Barometer
A Director of research, in one of the well known international real estate brokerage and consultation firms, once remarked to me the “Jollibee Rule of Thumb” in site selection in the Philippines. Wherein during site studies while checking for a site’s marketability, they check to see whether Jollibee has already setup a branch near the area.
The presence of this fast food behemoth means that the area is a well trafficked area with pedestrians having good buying power to afford their meals. In fact this is an industry acknowledgement of the skill of the market researchers at Jollibee. Plus of course it saves the other research companies money and time because they know that if it’s good enough for Jollibee then it should be good enough for them.
So what does this have to do with Yellow Cab Pizza? Well I guess this means that the presence of the very young fast food chain: Yellow Cab Pizza, in SM Davao (082-2977070 for take out orders) and their delectable Four Seasons Pizza is a testament to the Urbanization and Modernization of the city to merit enough the setting up of a local branch.
In the mid nineties with the opening of the first Mall (Victoria Plaza) it heralded the influx of McDonalds and then KFC. Prior to that, during my yearly pilgrimage home to Davao while studying in Manila, it would be normal to see the passengers bound for Davao having amongst their hand carried items, boxes of fast food and other delicacies that could only be found in Manila. This is so that it could be sampled by their loved ones at home. Remarkably that is a thing of the past already as development has finally caught up with us. Good thing for that too as its very sin full to have to travel a 1000 kilometers just to get your McDonald’s Fix *snicker*
On a side note: The flip side of that story is that the plane back from Davao always reeked of Durian. You could always tell at the baggage claim area which luggage came from Davao by just the smell of it or by looking at the endless and endless crates of pomelos coming out of the conveyor belt *snicker*
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