The map of the four districts in the National Capital Region (NCR), Philippines, and the aggregate number of NCR food retail outlets vis-à-vis the percentage of urban poor population per city. A total of 8,996 establishments were in operation to cater to NCR’s dense population of 12.87 million (20,785 residents per square km). Roughly 34% of the establishments were situated in the second district. The top three cities in Metro Manila with the most food retail outlets are Quezon City, City of Manila, and Caloocan City. Quezon City records the greatest number of establishments, and its 1,788 outlets consist of a dynamic mix of micro, small, medium, and large enterprises. The City of Manila has 1,443 establishments that fall only into micro or small classifications. Lastly, Caloocan City has 1,167 enterprises and unlike the diverse food retail environment in Quezon City, 99.4% of Caloocan enterprises are micro-sized. Tabulated values for poverty incidence and outlet density are available upon request.



A total of 1,280 geographic coordinates were obtained by exhausting search hits on Google Maps for the top NCR supermarkets (SM, Robinsons, Puregold, Metro Stores, Gaisano, Tropical and Liana’s, Rustans, Super8, All Day), Hypermarkets (SM, Puregold, Rustans, Super8), Convenience stores (7-eleven, Ministop, FamilyMart, All Day, Alfamart), Forecourt retailers (Shell Select, Petron Treats, Café Bonjour, Caltex Minimart), and major palengkes (traditional wet market). Search terms included “SM supermarkets NCR”, “SM hypermarkets NCR”, “Robinsons supermarkets NCR”, “7-eleven NCR”, “Palengkes in NCR”, and so on. The total number of geocoordinates gathered per retail format are as follows: 64 Palengkes; 308 Supermarkets; 80 Hypermarkets; 761 Convenience stores; and 67 Forecourt retailers.

As for the result, Philippines conducted consumer intercept surveys, meanwhile, audited both modern (hypermarkets, supermarkets, and convenience stores) and traditional (sari-sari) food retail stores within three cities in the National Capital Region, namely Caloocan, Manila, and Quezon City.