Story and Photos by JENA RAJNI EMPEÑO-MIGUEL | September 9, 2025

OLONGAPO CITY — The world’s biggest traveling book sale has finally arrived in this city.

Big Bad Wolf Books is bringing over one million brand-new titles to the SMX Convention Center Olongapo from September 19 to 28, marking the city’s first-ever taste of the global book phenomenon. 

“We really can’t change the world if we’re just going to the big cities,” said Ley Almeda, country head of Big Bad Wolf Books Philippines, during the Big Bad Wolf press launch at the SMX Convention Center on Monday, Sept. 8.

“We wanted to tap the smaller cities. There was a lot of requests for us to go a little up north. Olongapo is a highly urbanized city as well, and we believe that Olongapo people will welcome us,” she explained.

Almeda said Big Bad Wolf intends to keep returning to cities across the Philippines to continue its mission of providing affordable books to everyone.

The upcoming Big Sale in Olongapo will showcase 10 containers of books, totaling over one million titles.

Aside from a fully-stocked bookshelf, shoppers can look forward to special promos, bulk discounts for schools, exclusive merch, the fun “Book Stack Battle” challenge, and a grand raffle with prizes like an iPad.

Almeda also noted that while the company can bring up to two million books, venue space limited them to just one million for Olongapo.

BBW regional head Bernard Lee, meanwhile, stressed that contrary to popular belief, Big Bad Wolf is not a secondhand bookstore but a mission-driven company that buys books directly from publishers to keep costs low.

“We buy directly from the publishers. We buy in volume; we get cheaper cost. We sell it at a cheaper price,” said Lee pointed out.

“Normally we sell 50%—sometimes up to 90%—cheaper than retail price,” he added. “We can be profitable, but we choose not to, because we want to spread the affordability to other people, especially those who are underprivileged.”

“It’s not easy, it’s not cheap, but we hope we can change the world, one book at a time,” Lee enthused.

With Olongapo now joining the growing list of Philippine host cities, Big Bad Wolf hopes to continue expanding its footprint in the country, further fueling its mission to nurture a reading culture and bring affordable books closer to Filipino homes.

Organizers said they are also exploring a potential partnership with the Olongapo City government, although details are still being finalized. 