# Buying electrical items on the Internet in the Philippines



## soulman1949 (Aug 5, 2013)

I'm in the process of relocating from Manchester, UK to Koronadal in Mindanao where we're having our house built (nearing completion).

I'm looking to buy some kitchen electrical items (mixer, microwave) and was wondering whether anyone can recommend any Filipino retailers with an internet presence whose prices are competitive?

Also whether carriage of these items is reliable through the postal/courier route?

Thanks

Alan


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## M.C.A. (Feb 24, 2013)

*SM mall General Santos*



soulman1949 said:


> I'm in the process of relocating from Manchester, UK to Koronadal in Mindanao where we're having our house built (nearing completion).
> 
> I'm looking to buy some kitchen electrical items (mixer, microwave) and was wondering whether anyone can recommend any Filipino retailers with an internet presence whose prices are competitive?
> 
> ...



I've never been to Mindanao but all the SM Malls have an appliance center, you should be able to buy these items locally. Not sure how safe travel is in your area, there's an SM mall in General Santos City.


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## soulman1949 (Aug 5, 2013)

Travel is safe here, the risks in Mindanao are overstated and primarily confined to areas such as North Cotabato.

Yes I know I can buy the items locally but there isn't as much competition in Mindanano as in the UK, or even Manila come to that. EMCOR and ACE have stores here in Koronadal. GenSan is only an hour away and is a bit better served. 

I've seen a few stores advertising on the net and was looking for recommendations.


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## lefties43332 (Oct 21, 2012)

soulman1949 said:


> Travel is safe here, the risks in Mindanao are overstated and primarily confined to areas such as North Cotabato.
> 
> Yes I know I can buy the items locally but there isn't as much competition in Mindanano as in the UK, or even Manila come to that. EMCOR and ACE have stores here in Koronadal. GenSan is only an hour away and is a bit better served.
> 
> I've seen a few stores advertising on the net and was looking for recommendations.


I loved living in Mindanao. I lived in Aug del sur..Aug del Norte. Pristine seas at that time


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## cvgtpc1 (Jul 28, 2012)

I've had good luck with Lazada, the Amazon (almost) of SE Asia.


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## M.C.A. (Feb 24, 2013)

*Quality appliances?*



soulman1949 said:


> Travel is safe here, the risks in Mindanao are overstated and primarily confined to areas such as North Cotabato.
> 
> Yes I know I can buy the items locally but there isn't as much competition in Mindanano as in the UK, or even Manila come to that. EMCOR and ACE have stores here in Koronadal. GenSan is only an hour away and is a bit better served.
> 
> I've seen a few stores advertising on the net and was looking for recommendations.


Lazada and a few other online stores sell stuff but it looks like the same junk or low quality appliances they sell in the malls and other spots only they cost more and your stuck with shipping and VAT charges. 

If you looking for a quality blender, like the ones that they make frozen drinks with, well they don't sell those through the online shopping stores and I don't know why, quality appliances like that are sold in Manila (privately owned business), forgot the name of the store but in the Binondo or China town area and surrounding, it's real frustrating for me. Blenders sold in the mall are useless for crushing ice and the main reason I buy a blender. The quality blenders run about 7,000 Peso's and sold separately, you can purchase replacement parts, real nice.

4 years back I couldn't find a large crock pot so I ordered it online though Sears International Hamilton Beach 7 1/2 quart, in the US the price is about 1,500 peso's but the International side store has some higher prices and with shipping and VAT charge's it came up to 8,000 peso's. Sears International along with a couple other spots sold some quality appliances but they were unable to ship them to the Philippines due to some sort of laws, so no quality appliances shipped from a company outside the Philippines, just the low grade and basic stuff.


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## soulman1949 (Aug 5, 2013)

Thanks for the responses guys. I'll compare Lazada against what's available here.

Funnily enough, my g/f bought a blender/ice crusher here and it failed miserably when crushing ice, it burned out in less than a week! So that's one of the items on the shopping list.

One of the things I'm up against is that I'm unfamiliar with the brands available over here, unlike the UK where I have a reasonable idea of what to avoid. And learning curves can be expensive!


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## M.C.A. (Feb 24, 2013)

*Blender examples*



soulman1949 said:


> Thanks for the responses guys. I'll compare Lazada against what's available here.
> 
> Funnily enough, my g/f bought a blender/ice crusher here and it failed miserably when crushing ice, it burned out in less than a week! So that's one of the items on the shopping list.
> 
> One of the things I'm up against is that I'm unfamiliar with the brands available over here, unlike the UK where I have a reasonable idea of what to avoid. And learning curves can be expensive!


Basically these heavy duty blenders are made in China, Taiwan, you'd want a powerful motor and also spare parts to boot, they have stores in the Manila China town area and these are the same machines they use for selling frozen coconut drinks. Below is a sample of what they basically look like but the ones that will last are about 7,000 peso's.

You can get some better idea's from these stands (Sell frozen drinks) in the mall, they should know where to buy these quality blenders (Not online and not in the local mall stores unfortunately).

Commercial Blender For Sale Philippines - Brand New and 2nd Hand - OLX by Sulit

If there's some cool appliances you can't live without such as a hot dog warmer or pop corn machine, rotessiere pizza baking unit, I'd get that stuff packed up in those Balikyban boxes, same with many other items such as quality knives, stuff gets legs especially knives and quality ones are hard to find, same with the knife sharpeners. I purchased a small suit case full of used knives, mainly fillet knives and shipped that here each knife used cost me 25 cents, I couldn't imagine what the same knife would run me here. Cool gadgets like those apple splitters, heavy duty mashers for potatoes, can openers, stuff here is junky and won't last a year if that. Quality coffee bean grinder would be another addition if your into brewed coffee or an espresso machine, these two item's are only a dream for me now. Heavy duty "Steel" pots with thick steel bottoms, same with the skillets great for Induction cookers, gas, conventional electric tops, so hard to find here and extremely crazy prices or undersized pots and skillets, one last item those large iron skillets and pots.


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## soulman1949 (Aug 5, 2013)

Very helpful, many thanks for the information.

One of the best malls here is a KCC and I must admit I've been underwhelmed by the choice and quality of items in the kitchen and household goods section. Pans seem to be either expensive (no idea of the quality) non-stick or dreadfully ugly aluminium items (the sort which my folks used to use 50-60 years ago), so I'm tempted to bring some over from the UK. And yes, you're right about the various gadgets, so many things I have in the UK that I haven't seen over here.


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## colemanlee (Nov 17, 2014)

Im not sure you can buy a quality pan here...in the states I had Alclad, nothing like it here that I have found...I would for sure buy decent pans, knives, forks, spoons...and ship them here.
I brought a bunch of cast iron, but they wont use them, say their too heavy...

I have had very good luck with all things Samsung from TV's, Refrigerators to Cell phones 
Asahi makes some very good floor fans, Ive got two over four years old, but you have to get the ones with metal blades not the cheap ones.


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## M.C.A. (Feb 24, 2013)

*Cast Iron works on Induction cookers*



colemanlee said:


> Im not sure you can buy a quality pan here...in the states I had Alclad, nothing like it here that I have found...I would for sure buy decent pans, knives, forks, spoons...and ship them here.
> I brought a bunch of cast iron, but they wont use them, say their too heavy...
> 
> I have had very good luck with all things Samsung from TV's, Refrigerators to Cell phones
> Asahi makes some very good floor fans, Ive got two over four years old, but you have to get the ones with metal blades not the cheap ones.


I love cast Iron, great way to make corn bread, corn cake and the cast Iron works with the induction cookers and gives the best when it comes to even cooking.

I'm with you Coleman Lee, any sort of steel item of good quality is very hard to find and if you do it's too small and expensive.


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## Gary D (Oct 28, 2013)

I have seen Tefal in SM, they make about the best of the non-specialist cookware available in the UK.


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