Guadalupe Nuevo is one of the busiest MRT and bus stops along the northbound lane of Edsa. People…read morewho live in nearby barangays, such as Pinagkaisahan, Pitogo and Cembo, usually pass this area on their way to and from work. Thus, it's not surprising that there are a lot of establishments in the vicinity that are open 24 hours. One such place is the JK Humanbond Mart and Pharmacy, located at the ground floor of Hotel Sogo Guadalupe. It is open 24/7. I usually stop by the mart to buy water or candies before riding the bus plying along Edsa. The store isn't big, but they sell necessities like bottled water, food items, and toiletries. Since it's also a pharmacy, you can buy medicines here. But I noticed their stocks are mostly limited to over-the-counter and commonly prescribed medications. There are parking slots for about three cars in front of the establishment but since Magsaysay Avenue is a busy and narrow street, getting in and out of the parking slot may be a challenge especially during rush hours.

My area is one of the busiest but most convenient places in the Metro. I'm actually lucky to be…read moreliving here. The traffic of potential market for most businesses is incredible, and it's literally a street that never sleeps. (Right now, there are still tawaran sessions happening at the market downstairs at 1 AM, get a load of that!) And one of the places that literally never sleeps is this JK Pharmacy store which I still refer to as "K2 Drug". (Self, get on with the times, will ya?) That used to be its name, actually. I don't know what happened. It was renovated and stuff, etc. and re-opened as JK Mart. ANYWAY, I love that this place is so near. When my cats get sick, I just do a cartwheel and I have a bottle of Amoxicillin drops ready to save their lives. I can even get away without prescription (Well, I ask my vet friends and they tell me to go buy whatever through phone. Ain't nobody got time for prescriptions!) I just tell JK Mart I need this for my cats, and viola. I have the drugs. I don't really know if that's good or bad, or am I just an exception because they know me or something, though... They are forever open, so I go here for midnight snacks and emergency Yakisoba (Spicy Chicken) hoarding sprees. They're a hybrid of convenience store and infant/pedia/generics shops that it's provided Guadalupians a place to run to late at night for (hopefully) not too grave necessary medicine buys. Let's face it, even if another nearby similar store, Mercury Drug towards Edsa has a lot more to offer, it just takes ten thousand years! (And it has never changed for the 20 years I've been going there, really). I love this place, and I give it five stars because it's awesome.

I pass by this drugstore all the time going to the MRT and really think nothing of it since it's in…read morethe gritty, grimy corner of Arayat and EDSA, but it's always been here from as far back as I started commuting so they must be doing something right to survive so long. Well, fairly recently I've come to realize that 7-11 isn't the cheapest option to buy almost anything really, so I figured it would be cheaper to get a drink or a bag of munchies at the South Star Drug. It's very much cramped inside the drugstore, as they've squeezed in tall rows of grocery items on one side and the pharmacy on the other. They have the usual things you'd find in a drugstore, nothing really special or interesting here. The pharmacy itself is actually a little bigger than nearby drugstores in Arayat, so that might be a plus, though there's really no system or queue to how they deal with customers, which can be disorganized and frustrating. The smaller pharmacies in the area are likely the same, but they don't deal with a bigger customer base like South Star Drug does. Generally, the stuff might be a little cheaper, yes, but it's the kind of place you'll get stuff from only because you have to, so might as well get them somewhere else.

Mercury Drug is said to be the leading drug store here in the Philippines and I totally agree…read more Besides selling all types of medicine, Mercury Drug sells food, toiletries, and even hair and skin care products. It is just like Watsons, but bigger and slightly better. The thing that I like about Mercury Drug is that they really focus on selling medicine. Some drug stores out there that I have visited rarely have the things that I need. Mercury Drug is the only one that I truly trust. They also have special offers to their loyal customers. They have the "suki" card, which allows customers to accumulate a certain amount of points for every purchase of items in any Mercury Drug branch. These points can be used to purchase all types of items in Mercury Drug. You can also order things online through their website. Sometimes it is just a hassle to go out of the house to buy medicine, but Mercury Drug gives you the option to buy anything you need online.

I get vertigo every so often when I lack sleep or I'm sick or when the weather changes, and though…read moreit's not debilitating, it's uncomfortable. I try to hold out on drinking medication since it doesn't really cure anything and just relieves me of the dizziness, but sometimes I have to buckle and drink something. Problem is that the pills I take are a little pricey, so I feel like just rolling with the punches even more. That was until I found Generics, that is. The anti-vertigo stuff they have is cheaper enough that I don't feel like I'm just spending so much on just being able to walk around the house without the world tilting everywhere. What's more is that the Generics in the Arayat area is pretty close by, so if I need to go out but still need a temporary reprieve from my sensitive inner ear, I just drop by their little drugstore in the area. They don't get that many customers so it's always a quick transaction, and off I go into a vertigo-less world.

I bet many of us do not know that this is the original Mercury Drug store…read more The biggest pharmacy chain in the country started in this very spot. The reason I know this is my mom and her siblings used to "ration" meaning deliver food orders to the store when they were kids. My maternal grandma used to run a small panciteria along Bambang, walking distance from this store. Mom would recount how the pharmacy used to have a dispensing machine for Magnolia chocolait, and the owners would treat them to an endless supply, as much as they could consume, whenever they delivered food. Every day after school back when I was in elementary, I would walk from school to the panciteria, and would pass by Mercury Drug. At that time, we don't have any relationship with the owners anymore, because they've since become a chain operation. But it's nice to learn about this small bit of history. The neighborhood connections that tell a part of the story of the beginning of Mercury Drug.