SUGBO Mercado Food Bazaar Inc. brought its third installation of Sugbo Mercado to the South Road Properties (SRP) yesterday to cater to entrepreneurs and diners living in the south.
The Sugbo Mercado-SRP will occupy 1,000 square meters of City di Mare’s event space. The food bazaar will initially open with 20 vendors to activate the bazaar but is expandable up to 60 vendors.
“We are treating Sugbo Mercado-SRP as a pop-up event first, maybe for three months. The longevity of the bazaar will depend on market reception,” said Michael Karlo Lim, marketing director of Sugbo Mercado.
He noted that the idea of bringing the bazaar to the south is meant to boost entrepreneurship in that area and as an answer to the clamor of diners to bring the food bazaar closer to communities.
“Traffic conditions have limited people to go out and explore. So bringing the food bazaar closer to a thriving community is also a good strategy to capture them,” said Lim.
Sugbo Mercado, according to Lim, is now recognized by the Department of Trade and Industry and Department of Tourism as an official food market bazaar. The Cebu City Government has also recognized the potential of the activity in terms of creating business for people and engaging the young individuals to venture into entrepreneurship.
“The local government unit and the these government agencies saw the positive impact of the food bazaar to the local economy. The Cebu Government, for instance, is happy to see that a shift of mindset of individuals from seeking to become employees to becoming entrepreneurs,” said Lim.
Estimated foot traffic in Sugbo Mercado Garden Bloc (Cebu IT Park) on a regular night hits 5,000 from 5 p.m to 1 a.m. It is open Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays. The Sugbo Mercado-Cebu Business Park, on the other hand, which opens every Friday, Saturday and Sunday, logs an estimated 3,000 guests per night.
The team hopes to hit the same numbers or exceed the foot traffic in their SRP location.
