WalterMart eyes UNLI-Fresh expansion with Mayani, rolls out Palengke Day

Shoppers flock the UNLI-Fresh grocery pavilion of WalterMart and MAYANI as they fill their shopping bags with freshly-harvest produce for only P399

Through its various shopping formats in 2023, particularly its flagship innovation UNLI-Fresh 399 with the rapidly expanding agri-fisheries company MAYANI, supermarket chain leader WalterMart is increasing its shopper relevance and expanding its community reach.

By announcing its provincial and Metro Manila caravans for the first quarter of this year, WalterMart has already institutionalized this anticipated weekend shopping bonanza, which now moves metric tons of harvest per day, with a retail network of 45 stores across the entire Luzon: February will see Cavite, Batangas, and Bulacan, and March will see Pampanga, Nueva Ecija, Muntinlupa, and the Calabarzon region.

The first-ever "Palengke Day" will be held in WalterMart Muntinlupa from February 17 to 19, aiming to modernize the concept of "bagsakan" and give even nearby "palengke" vendors access to freshly sourced everyday local products like onions and eggs, two of the most in-demand staples currently due to supply issues.

“We will provide value to our customers and to our community through: FRESH – commodities of utmost quality, reasonably priced, sourced from our local farmers and cooperatives with our alagang WM personalized service; SAVINGS – everyday savings with competitively-priced merchandise and options for private labels and house brands; and CONVENIENCE – provide complete assortment in a clean, safe, and comfortable one-stop shop with fast transactions both offline and online. Sharing the same vision with MAYANI, we always aim to bring good value products to our customers and provide a better life to our partner farmers.” ~Rose Caalam, General Manager of WalterMart Supermarket

Tracing its beginnings as a small community supermarket in 1992, WalterMart now boasts of over 20,000 competitively-priced items and key consumer-oriented milestones including the mounting of Palengke Fresh with MAYANI during the height of the lockdown, its 5S Safe Shopping Program, and its CallMeWally same-delivery grocery delivery service – all under the aegis of its service campaign of “More to Love at WalterMart.”

“We will continue to innovate our joint offerings with WalterMart while being steadfast in our mission-first approach of strengthening those institutional market linkages for our smallholder growers and producers. Agriculture is a foundational and priority sector for the country, and we are optimistic that with the ecosystem of partners we developed over the years, MAYANI can drive more value for shoppers while creating positive social good across our agri-value chain.” ~Robert Esquillo, Partnerships Manager of MAYANI

Global publisher Scholastic Asia taps Mayani to extend aid, supports community library for Baseco

The world’s largest children books publisher Scholastic Asia has launched Project Aklat at Pangarap with agriculture marketplace Mayani to provide relief assistance and push community literary among the children of 196 indigent families affected by a massive fire breakout in Barangay 649, Baseco. 

Core to the initiative is utilizing Mayani’s community campaigns expertise and its platform for the online giving of food packs sourced from local farmers, after which free books were donated by Scholastic Asia upon meeting the total target food donations. 

The endeavor also drew the support of volunteer group No One Left Out, outdoor advertiser HDI, and Sto. Nino De Baseco Parish, who led the on-ground relief distribution.

“As Scholastic celebrates its 100 years, it’s in our roadmap to strengthen initiatives that will promote learning and reading. We’re active in partnering with organizations with the same goals as ours when it comes to giving back to the community. Every Filipino child should be able to be given a chance to strengthen their love for learning and eventually live a life that they've built for themselves in the future. We are happy that Mayani sees this eye to eye with us.” ~Jane Tiongco-Aguirre, General Manager for the Philippines of Scholastic Asia

Scholastic is known to be the publisher of the children’s favorites Harry Potter and Clifford the Big Red Dog. They are an active partner of schools in the Philippines in strengthening student reading proficiency through their word class and effective Literacy Program, Prime English and their remarkable numeracy program, Prime Math.

“One of our platform’s broadened use cases is empowering our customers to give back to causes that they personally care about. As an impact-driven organization, we open our platform for a multitude of partners to anchor their social drives on and tap other value points in our ecosystem.” ~JT Solis, the Co-Founder and CEO of Mayani

Over one metric ton of fresh produce and chicken, as well as 500 books and technology-enabled learning materials have been donated via the project. The books have been turned over already to the Baseco children’s community – an effort that will complement their alternative learning programs.

The campaign was also given boosting by Mayani’s billboard collaborator HDI. 

“We truly value education and holds this strong belief of promoting grassroots literacy as a top priorty.” ~Raoul Buencuchillo, HDI Adventures’ President