Minimarkets of the Philippines
By “Awake!” correspondent in the Philippines
IN THESE days of gigantic supermarkets and sprawling department stores, where can you go to buy just one piece of candy, one stick of chewing gum, one tomato, a cent’s worth of salt or a thimbleful of soy sauce? If you were living in the Philippines, you would probably go to a sarisari (variety) store, one of many thousands of minimarkets in the country.
The sarisari store sells a multitude of assorted small items. Business is conducted within a cramped cubicle on the ground floor of someone’s home. Items sold may include soap, petroleum, candies, dried fish, soft drinks, rice, corn, beans, canned goods, bread, salt, sugar, aspirin, iodine and school supplies. The bigger the store, the greater the variety of goods to be found there.
The minimarket is the busiest in the early morning hours, at noonday and in the evenings. Children, housewives, office workers, jeepney drivers—all kinds of people—make the sarisari store a beehive of activity. The storekeeper is a busy person indeed. He waits on customers, wraps their purchases, counts out their change, opens soft-drink bottles, deftly pours rice into paper bags—yes, he does a host of things during a 16-hour day, seven days a week.
The sarisari store may also serve as a reading center, a social club, a first-aid clinic, a telephone booth, a child-care center, a lost-and-found department, a miniature post office and a community newsroom. The storekeeper takes it all in his stride.
Some of these stores are cooperatives, meaning that many people pool their small capital to put up a store and share in its profits. But most stores are family businesses.
Certain sarisari stores have been forced to close because of stiff competition from newer and bigger stores put up by neighbors eager to get a slice of the community business. But many have grown into thriving enterprises or have branched out into other businesses. These minimarkets help to keep the family together during lean times and provide the funds sorely needed for the schooling of the children.
A Training Center in Human Relations
It takes a great deal of patience to deal with the various types of people who come to the sarisari store. A sense of humor is demanded of the storekeeper too. While he takes his business seriously, he doesn’t take it that seriously. He shrugs off other people’s shortcomings in the hope of encouraging them to buy more often. But if he loses a peso (14c) today, he takes that with a smile. What’s a peso between neighbors? The books will balance in the end. So he hums a tune and calls it a day, thankful that he has lived the day as an honest man.
Honesty Still a Good Policy
The storekeeper knows the absolute need for honesty in his business. He makes sure that he is selling sound fruit, free of worms or maggots, that fish or other meat is fresh and that customers receive correct change. Dishonesty in measuring commodities could lead to his being ostracized by his neighbors and having a stiff fine imposed on him at the municipal hall. Through honesty, however, the storekeeper proves himself to be a good friend and a fine neighbor. This assures him that his minimarket will prosper in the community.
A Friendly Neighborhood Meeting Place
The small community sarisari store is more than just a convenient place to buy things. It is a friendly place, where people meet and get to know one another better. Here is where one hears people’s cheerful greetings. They may linger in the comparative cool of the evening to swat the mosquitoes and to discuss the latest news—the children growing up, the new people in town, the rice crops, the latest weather bulletin, the oil crisis, the new president in some distant country or, perhaps, even the good news of God’s kingdom.—Matt. 24:14.
The atmosphere is completely informal. You may send your youngest child to do the buying for you. Simply give the youngster a basket, a list of things to buy and some cash. The storekeeper will hand him the groceries, check the items off the list and give your child the exact change, plus some candy if business happens to be good. If the money you gave your youngster happens to be short of the full amount, the storekeeper will simply ask him to run along with the groceries and bring back the rest of the money needed to make full payment for the purchases.
A Place for Children to Learn
The thousands of children who work with their parents in sarisari stores become efficient with shortcut arithmetic, calculating in their own little heads as they handle money. These children also get training, as well as a big thrill, when their mothers take them along to the big market in town to replenish the store’s stock.
She and the children get up in the early hours of the morning to go marketing for fresh fish, vegetables, fruits and other items for the store. She wants to buy directly from the farmer or the fisherman at lower prices than she would have to pay when trading with middlemen later in the day.
The youngsters learn to look for lower prices. “Don’t buy goods from the stalls near the streets,” the mother tells them. “Rent is higher for these spaces and so the prices are higher. Go deeper into the market, where stall rent is lower, to get the best bargains.” While trying to find the best prices, the mother also teaches the children to be wary of prices that are unusually low. Such goods might be stolen, damaged or smuggled items.
A Storekeeper Is Orderly
On arriving from the market, the mother stacks her supplies neatly on the open shelves in her store. Bottled goods go on one shelf, canned goods on another. Soft drinks are kept near the freezer or refrigerator. Fresh vegetables and fruits are placed on a well-ventilated bamboo table, away from the sun.
Rice and corn are kept in wooden boxes for quick pouring. Candies, chewing gum and other children’s favorites, usually in large bottles, occupy their own rows. Sugar—dark brown, medium brown and refined—already has been weighed out and placed in paper bags. Prices are written out on little squares of cardboard or on the individual items.
The mother takes pride in her store-keeping and likes to keep everything in its proper place. She gets things ready the night before and, as day breaks, the store welcomes its first customers.
Despite the supermarkets and department stores that now are flourishing in most cities of the Philippines, the humble sarisari store still fills an important need. It is there that a Filipino can purchase his immediate needs and also find a measure of warm companionship, some pleasant conversation and a sense of belonging in the community. So, the next time you are in this part of the world, do not overlook the humble sarisari stores—the minimarkets of the Philippines.