Manila Grocery

This place is starting to become a shell of it’s former self. IMHO the Chinese/​Korean powerhouse grocery stores in the City Market/​JoCo-​Metcalf area are finally starting to put a squeeze on this place.
Products here are now consistently more expensive than their southern competition. I also ran into a few other canned products that were expired.
It’s pretty darn hard to expire canned food. And to my wife’s sad dismay, the ampalaya (Bitter Gourd or Bitter Melon) is always rotten in the box. It’s not even worth trying to sort through the mold covered veggies.
And for what I think is the final deathblow, the store is losing it’s family first agenda. You used to always see the whole family here joking around and engaging customers. On my last few trips, there’s new folks there that don’t even recognise the clientele.
I hope this place can turn it around. But if they don’t expand their product line and price things competitively, they are going to suffer the fate of their restaurant, La Filipina Café.