Many (I repeat: MANY) times, I've found my laptop to suddenly be malfunctioning, or my Ps3…read moreincapable of playing disks. Obviously, I go to Greenhills, where there are enough tech experts to give you nosebleeds for months on end. I make a beeline however for the fourth floor, opposite the food court and across Datablitz. There I find my go-to guys (and girls) for my gadget repairs at Brochure Greenhills. They're a quiet bunch, and for really fair price they do basic services like formatting your laptop and resetting your Ps3 (the tech guys here will hate me, but I am absolutely clueless about these things). They do their repairs as you wait most of the time, and while most people would roam around, I find myself just staying in the area, and usually ending up sitting down and talking to the guy who's repairing my gadget. They're awfully nice, and calmly explain to you what happened or what went wrong, and how to avoid making the same mistake again in the future. Also, they sell secondhand Ps3 games at low prices - P200 at the lowest, and I end up buying one every other time I go there.

VMall is known for its sea of seemingly similar stores selling phones, computers, and basically any…read moretech you can think of. With such a great variety of choice, many newcomers find themselves bewildered, uncertain which stores to enter and which to avoid. They all sell the same things at similar prices, and the staff mostly have the same service culture. So, how does one decide? To be honest, I don't even know myself. All I know is I've been going to Brochure for more than 10 years now, and I can't even remember why. I hardly consider myself attached to my habits, but over time I've developed a trust for them. Even though other stores could also meet my demands, I keep coming back for technical problems and computer parts. An irrational favorite, perhaps, but that's as close as you'll get to differentiating all the rows of computer stores in Greenhills.

HMR has a way of having what you forgot that you needed - at a price that you want to pay for it…read more They roughly have offer the same areas as a department store: furniture, appliances, kitchen needs, business needs, some clothes. All types of surplus items from the states are available. They receive three deliveries a week so their stocks move and are at prices we are willing to pay. Before finding obscure stores to find obscure items, I check HMR when I can. They probably have it without the shipment cost.

Before Japan Surplus stores and American surplus stores became a popular phenomenon in the…read morePhilippines, there was HMR. This is the original place to get surplus items from the US. They have so many things that can be a wonderful addition to any home. Electronics, furniture and outdoor items can fetch a hefty price at the mall if you're buying brand new, but at HMR you get a lot of the stuff that's barely used some are even unused and still have the price tag. There are microwave ovens, TV sets, coffee makers, toasters, food processors and more that are so cheap, it's unbelievable. It might be because a lot of these items are 110v. I don't really mind because we have several converters are home since we imported most of our stuff at home from the US anyway. If you're the type who goes camping, you may want to check them out first before going to your local sporting goods store. They have a lot of items that are expensive elsewhere like camper beds, coolers and tents from Coleman. My favorite find is a set of flash cards from Fisher Price for P20 for the set! Who knew I could still buy something functional for that price?

2JC is a wholesaler and retailer of construction supply. Name every construction need you have and…read morethey will supply it for you. And they deliver it, too. What's good about them is they go out of their way to locate what you need and make it available to you as much as you need. And, if you are already a "suki," they won't ask you for a proof of purchase anymore in case you need to exchange any defective items. They will exchange it no questions asked! Look for Ms. Janette Chan, the general manager.

Who doesn't love CD-R King? I know I do. Back in college, I remember my thesis professor asking…read morethat we burn our thesis into a CD for submission. This was about a year before CD-R King started opening up shop at just about every mall there is. So, it took a while for me to file a re-writable CD. And guess how much it cost me? P300 for one CD-R! A year after, CD-R King started becoming a buzz word in schools and among my technophile friends. So I excitedly checked out their stocks. I was so shocked to see CDs at P25 each. Then a few months later, they even had more stocks of CDs that are now down to P14 each. I felt so ashamed of myself for not being resourceful enought to buy a P300 CD-R just a year earlier. I remember also getting my first flash drive here. It was a 256MB drive worth P250 and I thought it was such a steal! Flash forward many years later and they continue to provide amazing technology products on budget. I never imagined being able to afford an 8-gig flash drive for the price of one lunch meal! Whether I'm looking for headsets, laptop coolers, SD cards or anything remotely related to my gadgets, CD-R King is always my first stop.

If I need cheap techie stuff, I usually pass by any CDR King store and for sure I'll know I'll get…read moremy money's worth. I would usually get my blank CDs here. I mean as much I love CDR King, I don't usually get their own branded merchandise. I would get something that's a known brand. Like for example for my USBs and memory cards, I would get Sandisk brands but still from this store. Surprisingly though, the CDR-King branded universal charger works like magic! I bought it for less than 600 pesos and up until now it's the one that charges my Windows Laptop (it's been more than a year of existence). Another good find of mine is my plastic cellphone case! I like it because it protects the sides of my phone. Not only did I like how it fits my Samsung phone, it was affordable also. There are truly a lot of things you can fit here (really random things sometimes). You just have to ask the saleslady on a particular thing you're looking for. You never know, they might have it.

Lot of imported household and kitchen equipments that is, i think, exclusive to them. Although its…read moreon the expensive side. Its one of the high-end hardware store in malls, but in this branch, it's not as bid as their usual size.

CDR king is where you can literally buy all your computer needs on the cheap…read more They started out by selling blank CDs and DVDs and from there, they boomed. Cords, USBs, headphones, speakers, keyboards, mice -- they have it all. Apparently they have filing cabinets now as well - luggage, laptops, cellphone accessories and office furniture. What about an alarm system or CCTV? Yes and Yes. One time I even asked if they had a DSL phoneline splitter and they said they normally do, but they were out of stock when I asked. They have branded goods like Imation and Kingston, but all others are basically generic products and they put the CDR King brand on them. They're fairly good quality I'd say, especially if you put into consideration the price. Just don't expect perfect.

You know how SM claims that they've got it all for you? There is another store in town that I think…read moreshould adapt the same slogan. CD-R King sells anything and everything you will need involving a computer. From selling blank CDs, USBs, wireless keyboards, external hard drives, wires, cables and the funniest mouse pads, CD-R King tries to have it all. Nowadays, they literally tried selling everything with a release of luggage, pillows, and digital cameras. While service is not always a pleasure, its vast array of products compensate for it. Quality wise, the store doesn't really provide ground-breaking technology but enough to get you through the basics. I look forward to the day that CD-R King offers as many products as SM Department Store. You should really let a girl dream!

Video game stores fascinate me. I mean, I've always liked video games even since I was a kid. I…read moreused to go to video game stores all the time and watch the demo loop over and over again. Nowdays, you have stores like Data Blitz which has more or less dominated the market in the video game segment of the computer market. Then you have places like this. Game Extreme is a place that I have never heard of before. It's a decent enough video game store that sells a lot of original hardware. It's location and the fact that it doesn't draw too much attention to itself probably means that it will have a good chance of having certain items in stock that bigger names probably wouldn't. Their store focuses solely on video game items. I didn't see them sell any sort of figurine or books that were related to video games, which is what a lot of video game stores try to do nowadays.

Trusted pre order shop in Manila. I buy a lot off of Amazon and they will ship it for you. Plus…read morethey've got friendly staff

Don't mock the name! I have to be honest, when I first came across them, I doubted them because of…read morethe name but I was only buying a box of Twinkies, they can't really do much damage now can they? This was when Hostess and their products weren't available at SnR yet. We would pre order, pay half of the amount and then wait about a week or two for it to get here. At first they only had a couple of Hostess products, those spreads that people went cray over and some shoes like only a limited number and the pre picked size and kind. Since then I've built a relationship with Gr8tshops and they're one of the few online shippers you can trust. I say this because I'm a hard customer to please. I'm one of those who needs constant updates and proof of whatever. They send a screenshot of the online transaction (of what you ordered), pictures when it's arrived on their bodega and text you updates on when it might arrive. They did all that without me having to ask 'em to and that's some customer service right there. You can either have it shipped to your place, go to one of the meet up places or pick it up at the bodega in Cubao. We also had this instance where we ordered something from the U.S. and it arrived at their bodega a little damaged, the shoes had some sort of stain, upon closer examination. They could've sent the item and claim that it wasn't their job to return it but they did and when the new item came, it had a similar stain. By that point they offered to refund our money and send back the shoes but it was fine because the stain was barely visible and we really liked the shoes! You can be confident that you're in good hands with Gr8tshops!