►  2023 Review: Santa Cruz, Ilocos Sur Public Market

Why I visited this place?

On 2023-July-13, me and my brother were here. The reason why we visited this place was to look for a raincoat. We were on our way to BAGUIO City from VIGAN on a motorbike when the rain suddenly worsened. We were already in the town of Santa Cruz when it rained hard that time. Our goal was to look for any shopping establishment in search of a raincoat. The closest shopping establishment that time was the Santa Cruz public market; hence, we were here incidentally.

🇵🇭 SANTA CRUZ • It was almost 05:00 PM when it rained hard. We went to this public market to look for a raincoat.

Thoughts, impressions about this property

At first, I was afraid that the dry goods section of this property has been closed, because it was already late in the afternoon. Nevertheless, we gave it a try. The property was still open, though. I noticed that there were a lot of closed stores that time, but I was glad to see that there was an open dry goods store at the ground floor. The raincoats were also displayed very visibly.

I purchased two sets of raincoats for me and my brother. I thought that the 380-peso price was fair enough, since market vendors really apply a significant mark-up due to the haggle culture in our public markets. The store was managed by a Muslim woman. I was able to haggle down the price to 325 pesos each, though.

🇵🇭 SANTA CRUZ • These market shoppers walked in the market atrium.

🇵🇭 SANTA CRUZ • Me wearing the raincoat inside the market premises

🇵🇭 SANTA CRUZ • This public market has a spacious parking area for your motorcycle or car.

What I liked about this property?

• Accesibility: Like most public markets in the Philippines, the Santa Cruz (Ilocos Sur) Public Market is conveniently located along the National Highway (or the Manila North Road that runs from Laoag to Balintawak, Quezon City). I like the fact that this public market was able to provide us an immediate shelter and catered to our needs conveniently during this visit.

• Parking: The property has a wide parking space which provides additional convenience for market shoppers who bring their vehicles.

• Well-ventilated: The dry market section of this property is well-ventilated. It also has a spacious atrium. During this visit, it was raning; and the market was not crowded.

• Safe shelter: Like what happened to us, this property became our safe shelter when it rained. It is a public property, hence we can always drop by for a rest or shelter if caught in trouble along the road. While some public markets are crowded with limited "clean" space to take a rest or brief shelter, the atrium of Santa Cruz Public Market is a huge help to safely loiter around. I haven't tried dropping by here at night time, though.

 ►  General Information

Santa Cruz Public Market is a property of the municipality of Santa Cruz, Ilocos Sur located at the National Highway, Santa Cruz, Ilocos Sur. See embedded Google map location below.



Based on the 2012 COA report, 7,901,995.36 pesos were spent in the construction of this public market. A separate amount of 4,161,934.59 pesos were also spent for the concreting and continuation of this public market.

The public market features a spacious atrium in black and white tiles.

🇵🇭 SANTA CRUZ • This public market's atrium was adorned with black and white tiles.

NOTABLE STORES AND TENANTS

• Landbank of the Philippines ATM (ground floor) | Status: active tenant.
• 7-Eleven Convenience Store (ground floor) | Status: permanently closed
• nmb RAGASA Pharmacy (ground floor) | Status: active tenant as of my 13-July-2023 visit

 ►  Latest Updates and Visit History Timeline

• 2023-July-13: On this day, I visited this public market while it was raining. I've noticed that the 7-Eleven store at the ground floor was gone. It has been replaced by another tenant. For the full story of this visit, check the "Blog Review" Tab.

 ►  MORE BLOGS COVERING ILOCOS SUR