300. A Christmas Tradition in Motion: THE SPECTACULAR ANIMATED CHRISTMAS DISPLAYS OF MANILA C.O.D.

MANILA C.O.D. CHRISTMAS GALACTICA AD, 1979

The original founders of Manila C.O.D. were two Jewish brothers, the Ipekdjians, and the store’s wide inventory included jewelry regularly supplied by the Rosarios of Vigan. Due to import controls, the Ipekdjians had a hard time keeping the business, so they offered Manila C.O.D. for sale to the Rosarios, which the latter bought in 1948 for P100,000. Put in charge was the young Alex Rosario, who—for the next six years, tried to keep the business afloat; general merchandising in those days was controlled by the Chinese and Indians.

WATCH MANILA C.O.D. The Story of a Filipino Christmas

*Source: Living Asia Channel

But Rosario persisted by carefully choosing his products, putting quality above all else. This was not lost on customers, who began patronizing the store by the thousands. Even Rosario’s neighbors were impressed that they began asking him to sell their products. By 1962, Manila C.O.D. was an established department store. 

MANILA C.O.D., 1962

However, the changing urban landscape of downtown Manila threatened the business. So in 1966, Manila C.O.D. made a bold move of relocating its main department store to then somewhat-barren Cubao, while keeping the Avenida store as a branch. This made Manila C.O.D. the first department store in the then-young Araneta Center which until that time only had its 6-year old coliseum as its landmark. The little shop grew and by 1977, Manila C.O.D. had a workforce of 500 employees.

MANILA C.O.D. IN THE '70s

Because Rosario had no money for advertising, he devised ways to drive traffic to his store by creating spectacular displays during the Christmas season. The attention-getting moving displays had different themes every year—from Barrio Fiesta Holiday, Simbang Gabi, to out-of-this-world Christmas Galactica. These became perennial crowd drawers. Since then, there was no turning back for its growth.  

MANILA C.O.D. DISPLAY, early 1970s

By the 1990’s, Manila C.O.D.’s existence was under threat once more, not to mention the whole landscape of Cubao from changing urban landscape and lifestyle brought about by bigger malls, the multi-chain ones especially. Sadly, there was no getting out this time for the once-beloved department store. 

In 2002, in the midst of an overall decline of Cubao and in the department store concept, Manila C.O.D. closed down. But, after 16 years,  the iconic animatronic tradition of Manila C.O.D. made a comeback in 2018 (“Christmass Comes Home”), and 2019 (“Christmas in the City”), and wowed crowds once more at the new Araneta City.

 Originally written for spot.ph, and expanded for this blog)

 SOURCES:

#livingasiachannel #lactv

Youtube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mH70Yp6WowU

Manila COD: The story of a filipino Christmas, uploaded 1 July 2013, by Living Asia Channel

Sunburst Magazine, 197 issue

Philippine Graphic Magazine, 1954