THE WAVE OF HURRY SHOPPING

IS IT ALL ABOUT BRANDING? 

An analysis of shopping attitudes conversion, in the era of discount thirst.

PERHAPS THERE IS TRUTH IN THE MAGIC OF PINK TO CHANGE HEARTS. 

Here at home, this color is the ultimate symbol of femininity. 

In fashion, it is the symbol of the ultimate "belle", never masculine, and always elegantly dressed.

In another, pink translates to young love.

Perhaps, it is the color that has pushed a change of gear for women grocery shoppers.

THIS ARTICLE IS WRITTEN TO GIVE A DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVE ON HOW WOMEN THINK IN THE ERA OF E-COMMERCE; THE NO-BILL, NO-TATTERED MONEY WAY OF SHOPPING.

Away from the anonymity that e-commerce presents, which has become the tone of the times for many shopping-deprived women, there is a vague reality that only a heavily discounted grocery brand presents to most women locally.

This need pertains to the women's desire to be listened to in terms of needs, wants, and values, in the realm of shopping.

WHILE WE CAN COUNT THAT MANY GROCERIES HAVE LONG REIGNED AS THE GROCERY CHAIN THAT HAILS ITSELF TO THE  MASSES, DEFINITELY CATERING TO THE ORDINARILY POCKETED, THIS NEWCOMER THAT IS SEEMED BENT ON WOOING WOMEN FROM THE PLAIN CLOTHES SHOPPERS TO THE MICRO BUNDLERS, PROBABLY KNOWS THAT WOMEN HAVE BEEN FAULTED ALL THE TIME FOR NOT BEING BUDGET-CONSCIOUS ENOUGH.

Ergo a revival for budget grocery shopping that is not for the ultrahefty, but made for the mini me convenience.

CONVENIENCE AND AFFORDABILITY ARE ALL THE RAGE AND FEEL OF THIS GROCERY HAUNT THAT IS SO HARD TO MISS EVEN ON THE BUSIEST OF STREETS AND ON THE HOTTEST OF DAYS.

The grocery brand that woke many women shoppers to the possibility of a decent option to other bigger-spaced, widely aisled grocery brands despite being "tingi-friendly" or slim-budgeted, can take pride in having items that are so affordable, without expecting consumers to simplify their staple foods at the Filipino dining table because of the rising costs of food these days.

What's more even the items that can be bought from ordinary sari-sari stores can also be bought here in this "pinklandia" for grocery shoppers-- from peanuts to chicharon; candies and pica-pica for the drinkers.

The basic commodities were also simplified allowing buyers to get their choice items in minuscule portions and sizes.  

No need to scour the aisle, by aisle for hours; or wade through the crate to crate for discounted items.  The floor layout was made simple enough that women could easily elbow their way through the spaces and out with the products and goods they wanted in as fast as five to ten minutes, with no time wasted for the busy moms.

Name your pick: coffee, tea, sugar, and an affordable version of bread or tasty, stack these in your basket and you have a morning eat already.

The brisk time and friendly price tags of items in this new trending grocery also carry frozen goods that are often picked by Filipino "silog" meal lovers- burger patties, tocino, mixed veggie packs, etc.  When cooked the meat products are just as tasty to the palate as those of the more expensive brands.

Another reason that this grocery is different from other "hebigat" stores are the attitudes of the people who frequent the store.

The grocery shoppers are more disciplined, more polite, and more courteous to other shoppers. Not the type to waste time and linger for a chika, and mostly they are individual shoppers unaccompanied or without an entourage.

Also buying from this grocery would spare an ordinary shopper to be heckled or taunted for buying one or a few cheap items in their cart, a common observation when doing this in other more popular groceries. The cashier and employees or attendants inside are not overly staffed and cramped to give them time to crowd over one customer. 

It is a very efficient setup even for employees who are simply busy without minding the personal interactions of other customers with their products or their choices.

PERHAPS, THIS LAST REASON IS WHAT MAKES THE DIFFERENCE IN THE WORLD OF PINK GROCERY SHOPPING THAT IS DRESSED DOWN TO A MINIMALIST INTERIOR, YET STILL LOOKS APPEALING FOR DISCOUNT SHOPPERS.

Yes, there is a wave of new convenience shopping and it is the one that listens intently to what women want and look for in their grocery tags.

Posted by Anna Liza VB for News Review Philippines.

June 28, 2024. 

8:02pm

RESPONDING TO JOB ADS: IS IT WORTH IT?

Are virtual jobs outside the rules of propriety?

The lack of available jobs for middle-aged, returning workers could mean many settling for virtual jobs holstered by numerous ads on many social network sites locally. 

Hard to miss those ads, really. 

One ad could promise an easy Php 1,000 to Php 3,000, gig payout for applicants, as these also brag about the ease of applying. Or so one thinks.

Try responding to any pop-up ad that gives vague details of individual names and businesses that ask for part-time applicants; one will know it is not a walk in the park of convenience.  

Where inquiry is a just text or chat away, one can also be confronted with non-working links, registration errors, bouncing or slow-motion pages, and irate staff handling the inquiry.

The job ads lure virtual job applicants who are displaced by the normal recruitment process and those who have been excluded by many employment limitations: such as age, industry work availability, etc. Thus some workers, have been pounding for work that could be less than what their diploma should have earned for them-- the non-inclusive standards set by Human Resource personnel resulted in some returning professionals' ambivalence to the employment situation when all they can easily reach out for are ads rooting for VA jobs in the era of A1.  

At its best, the job ads which do not seem to discriminate when it comes to age and educational requirements or tech proficiency, give a shady impression as one progresses to chat with the business handler who prompts an applicant to register for a site. 

Nothing much has changed since the pandemic happened, even after local employers promised the shift to online work and the much-vaunted promise of availability of online jobs. 

Only, virtual jobs and work assist job offers are now more pervasive on social media sites and seem to have been tailored towards the promotion of products for e-commerce companies.

But "trying" the apply button is always worth a curious try when one has enough spare time.  

Clicking on the apply button can actually lead to another site, which leads again to another individual account with phone number details, profile photo, and an instant chance to chat and inquire about the job being offered anonymously.

Then comes the usual opening line or introduction. Most often a very brisk idea of how the business is, and what it needs from the part-time applicants.  

The next step is to click on the link that the staff has provided. A very vague alphabet numeral combination, the usual link line.

At this stage, the would-be applicant tries to input details. Usually a mobile and other required information. The problem lies not just in thinking through the "sending" of details but whether the details would be accepted; and in estimating if the site is legit. Also one will have to wait and see if one would be directed to a faulty site that is different from what the staff receptionist expects. 

The process really can take less than a minute depending on the number of fail tries. 

But as an applicant for virtual work,  one could rather surmise that there is a high chance that the sporadic ads are actually not that legit, after all.  

This realization would surface as one progresses into the chat inquiry as the individual staff converses with an applicant.

On the side of the brunt, terse, or frankness to a fault, the individual receptionist handling the message of an applicant for virtual jobs, could show a lack of training within 5 minutes into the conversation..

Below is a sample text of how an applicant could be treated by the so-called "business handler" of some e-commerce or shopping sites' marketing or affiliate companies, that aim to find part-time applicants through job ads:

The first message shows the first instance of an irate message sent to an applicant, by the business account handler or receptionist.  

The second message positions an assumption from the chat receptionist that the applicant did not at all register on the required site to go through the application process. It also came with a dissatisfied comment.

So how rude of a remark is considered appropriate to accept when one is a virtual job applicant, in this age when jobs are scarce for traditional middle-aged workers?

Workers, be aplenty and veer away from settling for much less when you can still prime for the best jobs that can be offered by more decent employers online

NEWS REVIEW PHILIPPINES 2024

January 16.

SCAMDEMIC AND THE CHALLENGES OF MASS COMM GRADUATES

 SCAMDEMIC AND THE CHALLENGES OF MASS COMM GRADUATES

One time in my chat conversations, a creative professional mentioned the term “scamdemic”, two words-in-one (to mean a combination of scam + pandemic), in which she alluded to the many expenses that had to be incurred by the ordinary citizen to fulfill the protocols set during the quarantine timeline.

I did not wish for her to elaborate on what she meant. But the term itself is true even if the pandemic did not happen.

When THE TERM WAS BROUGHT UP, THE CONVERSATION was initially meant to focus on job-hunting online (without the need to work in physical locations), and the need for more available employment for MEDIA and creative professionals of all ages, who have been displaced for the longest time by many contributing situations—the current pandemic; closure of a good number of media companies and the downsizing of employees, to name a few reasons for the unemployment.

The lack of employers who prefer to hire Mass Comm-related credentials further placed graduates into obscureness and irrelevance, in the era of social media.

WHY THE LOSS OF OPPORTUNITIES FOR MASS COMM GRADUATES?

This writer might have stressed in previous writing that the over-popularity of vlogging which opened a plethora of earning opportunities for many individuals, could also have given birth to the polarization of media companies which offered more tangible jobs in regular offices and with preset times for reporting.

 The polarization came with the increased pressure to come up with digitally proficient versions of their companies and the need to reformat media structures to accommodate vlog formats and other tech-induced online media productions. We merely put vlogging at the top because of its undeniable way of drawing workers to its fold. To further hyphenate on this,

Vlogging which features formal to informal productions of individuals or businesses, has given birth to the practice of many non-Mass Comm educated professionals coming from different fields and work backgrounds to go into media, entertainment, and documentary work as well, without the necessity of training or degree. Practitioners who are now  into vlogging are not just celebrities and news media personalities but graduates of the serious mold—the lawyers, politicians, etc, and the ordinary skilled individuals as well, who offer a variety of topics to discuss and vlog about.

There is a need to underscore that most of the skills and knowledge required for vlogging are instilled among Mass Comm students from their earliest journey to the end of their learning ropes in college.

With the democratization of news, lifestyle, travel, and entertainment productions that are more scalable rather than grandiose,  including other feature shows, Mass Comm practitioners have slimmer and not actually better opportunities to EARN AND LAND A STABLE CAREER online despite the soaring popularity of vlog work, propagated by many high-income earners.    

THE REASONS COULD BE:

1. VIRAL-CENTEREDNESS OF THE ONLINE MEDIA FORMAT AND ALL THE HYPE OF SENSATIONALISM THAT WORKS ON MANIPULATION OF ISSUES AND/OR OVEREXPOSING THE PRIVATE LIVES OF INDIVIDUALS.  ALL OF THESE ARE NOT REALLY PART OF THE TRADITIONAL TEACHINGS OF THE OLD MASS COMM CURRICULUM IMPLEMENTED IN COLLEGES OF SENIOR MASS COMM PRACTITIONERS.

2.     A SECOND REASON IS THE DIFFICULTY OF GETTING SPONSORSHIPS FOR VLOG SITES. This is sparkly true even for local bloggers who do not use visual expression, or videos to beef up their content online.

For older practitioners, the gap in skills is EVIDENT in the quality of output of their content. THERE IS A NEED TO MENTION THAT for vlog work, a vlog's quality IS DEPENDENT ON THE availability of exhaustive and sometimes punitive resources, that one NEED to make use of, to better vlog productions- gadgets and apps included.

Mass Comm practitioners of the past era are used to minimalist technology and with low DEPENDENCE ON manpower.   Old-timers have been trained MORE to HANDLE multi-tasking and to hone basic media skills DESPITE THEIR NEED TO HAVE SKILLS FOR TEAMWORK FOR PRODUCTIONS. THEY HAVE focused on technology but not as brazen as the ones being offered these days like AI technology.  THEY ALSO LACK the financial management training that is necessary before going into fully integrated media work or venture.  This is a problem because most vlog productions require expenses that can range from minimal to exorbitant, DESPITE BEING SCALABLE. 

Also, ordinary Mass Comm graduates are used to being employed rather than having an unparalleled freedom to pursue creative independence as exhibited by start-up vlogs that put together one or more talents to PRODUCE CONTENT FOR VLOG, AS AN INDEPENDENT, without limits for topics, form of expression, use of technology and so forth.

HENCE THE REASON FOR DISPLACEMENT includes INCREASED COMPETITIVENESS OF other graduates trained in non-Mass Comm courses,  THOSE WHO HAVE BETTER RESOURCES AND MANPOWER ACCESS.  The media landscape truly has changed for the OLD TIMERS WHO SHY AWAY FROM CAMERA work OR IN YOUR FACE MEDIA PRODUCTIONS.

3. ANOTHER EXPLANATION FOR THE DISPLACEMENT OF MASS COMM GRADUATES FROM REAL MEDIA WORK OPPORTUNITIES, IS THE ZEALOUSNESS OF OTHER INDUSTRY PROFESSIONALS TO VENTURE INTO MEDIA; THOSE WHO OBVIOUSLY AIM ONLY FOR POPULARITY AND CLOUT, THE FAST AND EASY WAY MORE THAN THE EXPRESSION OF PRESS FREEDOM, which is the first stalwart of MOTIVATION for going into mass media work.

To be continued…