Market to the people

“Bringing the market to the people” is the motto of the newly-opened Lopue's Panaad which was inaugurated last April 15. As the name suggests, this is another store of the Lopue's chain located right at the entrance to the Panaad Sports Complex in Barangay Alijis, Bacolod City.

The idea appears new but in truth this has been the trend in the United States for quite some time. The idea is to bring the market closer to the people rather than rely on the old system where people go to where the market is. This kind of store, called “big box store” is intended to reduce the movement of people and thus limit as well the use of public and private transport that ultimately curb fossil oil pollution.

In fact this system is among the methods induced by climate change. As can be easily surmised, less cars, less fuel consumption, less carbon dioxide will be emitted into the atmosphere. In cities where traffic had become a major problem, the big box stores help ease traffic aside from the bonus of less wasted time in travel, savings in transport cost, and definitely less stress of modern living.

Bacolod is growing fast. The new constructions are already into this urban planning. Ayala and its several adjacent subdivisions are becoming a self-contained community. It has its supermarket and what I might call a mini-mall because it has all the offerings of a mall but in a smaller and more compact place.

Lopue's East is a classic example. Instead of people living east of Bacolod going to the inner city, the area has become self-sufficient that no longer necessitates people to travel to Bacolod's commercial centers to get the things they need.

The District and Super Metro in Talisay are already reducing the number of people going to Bacolod in the same way that Robinson's Place once got the population north of it from getting into the city's center. Soon the townships along the circumferential road will be creating a self-contained community.

In the past it was normal for people to travel into the inner city from the suburbs or what we call subdivisions. This necessitated trail for those who could afford to have cars. The appearance of big box store as Lopue's Panaad will eventually create a ring around the inner city and if the city fails to plan, the inner city will eventually slacken and in some cases like in the US, they begin to die.

The District, Robinson's and the malls that are expected to rise east and south of Bacolod are not the big box stores. As defined, the big box stores are big, constructed inexpensively, offering low cost goods and items and almost complete, a sort of expanded 7 Eleven. They differ from malls that are elaborately constructed and expensive. One can get this definition right in Lopue's Panaad. Everything is there on the ground floor.

The trend now is to make the suburbs a mix of residential, commercial and open spaces. Lopue's Panaad has a custom-made residential community around it. On the other hand, others have yet to create that mix which makes transport away from home unnecessary. In fact, the point here is to make things readily available at walking distance from the house. This gives families more time for other activities aside from saving transport cost. Public transport as a result is reduced. In fact the residents are encouraged to walk or bike. We have not yet reached this point in a great scale but we seem to be moving in that direction.

The negative side that Americans found due to this movement outside of the city's inner ring is that the inner cities begin to deteriorate. Many American cities, are now engaged in what they call “urban renewal” to draw people back. However, the challenge of climate change – use of gas guzzling transport makes that effort more challenging. There are, one book (World Changing) noted, “dead and dying spaces. Huge parking lots and ‘60s era malls. …Traffic problems in the inner-ring burbs are often out of control, as commuters from outer suburbs crowd roads that were built for much smaller rush hours.”

Do you wonder why, despite the no-parking in Lacson and Araneta Streets traffic continues to snarl there? One reason is that these streets were made when there were fewer cars in Bacolod and fewer people from outside the city. Now they congregate here. Lopue's Panaad, a project of Ben Lopue Jr. is a step to decongestion.*

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