Dali Everyday Grocery is a great alternative way to buy necessities at home at inflation-resistant, affordable prices.
We’ve seen many of these Dali Grocery Stores pop up in the Metro in recent years. These are actually creative ways to sell inflation-resistant products that help ordinary Filipinos stretch their pesos more.
Dali Everyday Grocery is a concept carried over from Switzerland, the “hard discount” store. These stores are hyperfocused on selling affordable products by shedding unnecessary costs.
For example, you can buy limited products in Dali that focus on necessities. These products are often unknown but are made by local suppliers. Dali buys them in bulk, which pushes down the selling price. They also test these products using their testing facilities before selling them.
Every possible cost is well thought out, and efficiency is the name of the game. You won’t see advertisements, as they rely on word-of-mouth. The prices of their products are typically shown outside the store, comparing them with the equivalent known product.
Their stores have limited personnel (around 2 or 3 full employees, no probationary ones) and no security guards. The products aren’t always placed on shelves; some can be obtained from the pallets/boxes in which they were delivered.
They recommend bringing your shopping bags, or you can buy their paper bags at a small fee. You can also get their free boxes if you need them. After paying, you must pack your groceries into your container of choice.
The store interior is clean, and the location isn’t in commercial districts but in local neighborhoods, near the customers who need it.
What I Saw in My Local Dali Store
I went around the small store and noticed familiar mixed with private brands. Typically, the familiar ones have the lowest prices they can go. It is no wonder Puregold is trying to undercut Dali by matching the prices in certain “lanes” inside their stores.
You can now pay in cash, with credit/debit cards, or with e-wallets like GCash. I think GCredit will be very useful here, especially for those who want to stretch their finances further.
Here are some pictures I took of the products, and the prices are as of March 2024:
Note that these are only samples, as other products on sale were not food. There were also soap and cleaning products. You can also check out the Dali product slideshows to see other examples.
What I Bought in Dali
I’ve visited Dali several times to review some of their food there. This time, these were what I bought:
The products I chose were cheaper than what I used to buy in Robinson’s Supermarket when I did my grocery runs. If I had bought equivalent items in a typical grocery store, the cost would have been around Php 800 or more.
Simple and Quick Review of Dali Products
Will Buy Again Group
- Vicente Vidal Original Potato Crisp – pretty good; comparable to Lay’s
- UnoPrimo Brown Sugar – typical brown sugar
- Twist-O Super Orange Drink – pretty good, comparable to Minute Maid, but without straws
- Kulina Real Mayonnaise – the taste is close to Lady’s Choice, but it’s still good
- Pinoy Soda Zero (1.5L) – surprisingly, almost the same flavor as Coke Zero; also, Php 45 for 1.5L is *really* cheap (normally it costs around Php 75)
- Chipsy Potato Chips Cheese 130g – it seemed a version of Pringles with lighter seasoning; also, the chips are bigger than Pringles
- Mauxion Salut Milk Chocolate with Hazelnut – a large bar of chocolate with nuts that looks imported and tastes premium, which costs less than Php 50; almost always sold out
- AllTime Mixed Vegetables – typical mixed vegetables
- AllTime French Fries – typical fries, close in taste to Frenchies
- Bakakult – I got the strawberry-flavored one; I could not compare it to Yakult because there was no plain one when I bought it
- Eggs – they got medium-sized ones and cheaper than the ones I’m buying from my suki
- Pavia’s Mushroom Chicharon – felt premium as the packaging was zippable even though it’s only 50g; taste was okay
- Joyice Ice Cream – the flavor was pretty good; my kids loved what they got individually
- Choco Fun Cookie & Cream – My wife loves this as she has a sweet tooth; the size is big, so it can last longer
Hard Pass Group
- Pan Americano Wheat Bread – the bread is too airy and delicate; it could be easily taken apart by hand without much effort
- El Ranchero Corned Beef – I was not too fond of it as it was too greasy, and it quickly solidified after cooking; the taste is close to Argentina Corned Beef
- Manny Mani Garlic Peanuts – the peanuts were soft and tiny and covered with a white powder, which made them cake up your fingers while eating; also, I was not too fond of the taste as it seemed too salty
- La Fiesta Capel Sangria 1L – pretty cheap Sangria, but the quality is pretty low, so I don’t think it was even worth it
- AllGourmet Hashbrown – we liked this before; I don’t know what happened, but it feels that there are extenders now, as the hashbrowns were not chunky at all
Wrapping Up
I’ve talked about how Dali Everyday Grocery works and how it makes everything cheap and affordable. I’ve also shared my recent purchases and found that the quality is comparable to the mainstream alternative but with lower prices.
I will keep on going back.