Best Value

Warehouse shopping sans the membership requirement

This Holiday Season may be the best time to try shopping at the Best Value Factory Food Outlet, one of the best kept secrets in the wholesale industry. Best of all, unlike other warehouse outlets, you don’t need to sign up for a membership before purchasing. People in the food industry and those with small and medium scale food businesses have been flocking to Best Value even before they opened their doors to the public at large – and now you can, too.

If you name your store ‘Best Value,’ you need to have the merchandise to back it up – and they do. They offer factory prices on a host of goods particularly Cooking Oils, Specialty Fats, Baking and Culinary Ingredients, and a whole sundry of items you won’t normally find at the supermarket and normal retail outlets. Best Value has a wide assortment of goods at great value and superb quality. Most of their products come from Oleo-Fats, an affiliate company which already manufactures products for food industry leaders and famous food chains.

Initially, the store was just an outlet to sell to Oleo-Fats customers who didn’t meet the larger volume orders, according to Princess Guia, Best Value’s ebullient Sales and Operations Supervisor. But this year they realized that expansion meant choices, and so they decided to carry other brands as well, making them a full-fledged store.

One of the reasons the store expanded to include more and more items is simply because the customers kept asking.  For instance, since they already sold the soft serve mixes, customers also looked for the cones, the syrups, and the toppings. “They wanted basic commodities, like flour and sugar, so our goal is to complete the product lines,” says Guia.  “This is why you’ll also see products adjacent items such as packaging material and chocolate and cookie molds.”

Predictably, the food service and Horeca (Hotel, Restaurant, Café) industries make up a large portion of their customer base. The rest have food kiosks/stalls bakeries, some are hobbyists and homemakers. Pretty much anyone will benefit from their products. “For all your culinary needs” is not just a tagline. They have a range of mixes, syrups, sauces, toppings, flavorings, spices, breading, among other dry goods and even frozen meats. While food items are their primary product, there are also others like soaps, cleaners, and laundry detergents because the food service companies also need those and their parent company, D&L Industries, manufactures those products as well.

The company also encourages entrepreneurship with their HANEP (Buhay) Negosyo Packages. The store sells equipment such as soft serve ice-cream makers, granita slushee mixes, juice mixes, 3-in-1 Vendo, and Popcorn Maker. It’s a smart move as they’ve become a one-stop shop for all your entrepreneurial needs. The streamlining just makes it easier. They also conduct free seminars and demos to educate interested customers.

As always, it’s the people who really make the experience shopping here an enjoyable experience. Best Value knows their customers not just because they’re often repeat customers, but because they engage them, and it’s those personal touches that really make the customers feel heard. When some of their shoppers went looking for Organic Apple Cider Vinegar in the shop because there was a shortage in the usual places, Guia herself searched for other suppliers and it wasn’t long before they were on the shelf. It is this kind of personalized service and the products themselves that have brought fast growth to the company and definite expansion plans for next year. As Guia puts it, “We are also learning from the customers.”

Best Value Factory Food Outlet is located at 62 Calle Industria, Bagumbayan, Quezon City, with tel. no. (02) 635-0680 local 386 and mobile # 0918 903 9328. Store Hours are from 9 in the morning ‘til 7 in the evening daily. Visit and like their Facebook page via www.facebook.com/BestValueFFO/

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E(Edited by Ed Ciby)