On Veggie Soup and differing economic markets

One of the interesting/confusing/difficult/crazy/incomprehensible things here in the Philippines are the vastly different socio-economic sectors of society. Here, there are VERY poor people, surviving, as mentioned in the last blog, on the smell of a dirty rag. And there is also a group right at the other end of the scale. They are also filthy, just filthy rich. Corrupt politicians are known to have siphoned literally billions of $US into offshore bank accounts. And in between, there are numerous other levels. As Kiwis, we pride ourselves on not being too 'flashy'. Even the wealthy among us in general don't flaunt it. A classic example is Gareth Morgan, who was New Zealander of the year in 2007. With a multi-million dollar sale behind him, he still wore jeans and T-shirts, and in fact decided to give most of it away to those who needed it more than he.
Here in Manila, the wealthy don't aspire to hide their riches. In my morning walks around our village, I pass several households that have a more sports cars parked outside than there is room for occupants inside. And the cars are being dutifully washed and polished by the household staff each morning. And our village is by no means the most exclusive.
If one wanted to live an exclusive first world lifestyle here in this city, one could easily do so. There are the finest international brands being sold here; designer bags, clothes, shoes, toys, imported foods, cars, whatever. And next to these expensive outlets are also the cheap palengke (markets) selling anything and everything from little plastic toys, imitation shoes, fruits & vegetables, meat (with flies all over it) and so on.
So whatever your income level, there are shops to match your needs.
I was reminded of this yesterday, when we had lunch at one of the more exclusive malls. It's exclusive, because there is no public transport to it. This thereby restricts its market to those who own cars, or can afford taxi fares. (And by the way, taxis here are cheap compared to Western standards. An hour's taxi ride might cost NZ $7 or $8. Public jeepneys, on the other hand, cost about 15c for the first 4km). We like visiting this mall, as it is so much quieter than the others, and one can actually relax and enjoy the aircon there.
After eating lunch, I wanted to buy some vegetables to make some soup once we got home. So Emily, Zoe & I made a trip to the supermarket end of the mall, chose our veggies, and then went home. When I started to make the soup later that afternoon, I got out the Zucchini I had in the fridge, bought from our local supermarket, and saw that it had cost me 37pesos (NZ$1). The second Zucchini, bought at the exclusive mall that day, even though it was smaller, had cost me no less than 147 pesos. A threefold difference, simply because it was bought at a shop catering to a different economic market. And I'm positive if I had bought it at a palengke in a squatter area, it would have cost me about 15 pesos.