In the Philippines, "malling" has become a verb, the act of going to a shopping mall and whiling away the hours.
The Southeast Asian country has three of the world's 10 largest shopping centers, two of them in the capital, Manila. Scores of others, ranging from modern glass and steel structures to older, fading buildings, dot cities across the archipelago.
Although over 40 percent of the country's 90 million people live on $2 or less per day, malls here are crowded at all times, and especially packed at weekends.
Around 80 percent of the Philippines' population go to shopping centers and around 36 million people visit shopping plazas once or twice a month, according to Nielsen Media Research.
"People just come to the mall to stay cool, said Chris Balberona, a driver for a bank, who was at Manila's Megamall watching ice-skaters on an artificial rink. [Read more]
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