Monday, July 28, 2008 Survival kit’ sari-saris By Debra M. Estero Sun.Star Correspondent
PATIENCE and good customer service are key elements to help grow and sustain a sari-sari store business.
Ask Juliet Noval, a housewife who has been operating a sari-sari store in the last 17 years.
“Dapat ikaw gyud ang magpa-ubos sa imong mga customers, kay customer is always right man lagi, bisan usahay dili na sila sakto (A sari-sari store owner should be considerate with customers because a customer is always right, even when sometimes they are not),” she said.
Last Friday, Noval was awarded as one of the “Queen Buyers” of Prince Warehouse Club’s (PWCI) Sari-Sari Store Society during a festival held to honor sari-sari store owners all over Cebu.
Noval, whose husband works in a mango farm as chemical spray applicator, may be one among the countless sari-sari store owners in the country, but she is one of the few who succeeded.
She said learning basic customer service has helped her grow her business. She started with a capital of P4,000 but her business has partly financed her children’s education.
Indeed, good customer service is no longer the maxim of big corporations. Even the owner of the sari-sari next door is
learning the basics of good customer service to survive in an industry that has proved to be very competitive.
Last Friday, PWCI offered free seminars on basic accounting, inventory management and accessing micro-finance institutions to over 1,500 sari-sari store owners in Cebu.
Robert Go, PWCI president, said there is a need to help the sari-sari store industry. He expressed the belief that something as small as a sari-sari store will become a big business someday and create jobs for the community.
He stressed the importance of financial management and sustainability among sari-sari store owners.
While the sari-sari store may seem to be an original Filipino concept, Go said this type of business endeavor is actually a “global phenomenon.” In the United States, for instance, there are “mom and pop stores.”
“You can find similar stores in Hong Kong and Singapore as well,” he said. But nowadays, mom and pop stores are no longer common, especially in first world countries. The concept has since evolved into the convenience store model, like the 7-11 outlets.
In the Philippine setting, anybody can put up a sari-sari store and sell the daily needs of the neighborhood – from laundry soaps to canned goods.
But what sets the successful stores apart, Go said, is when the sari-sari store owner learns the basics of business management.
Jugina Briones, another “Queen Buyer” awardee for Prince Warehouse’s North Reclamation Branch, said since anybody can put up a sari-sari store, competitors are sprouting everywhere.
This is why store owners have to resort to strategies that will help them keep their customers and attract new ones, she said.
“Mag pa-utang sad mi (We allow credit),” she said. But she was quick to add that a limit should be set for every creditor based on the customers’ capacity to pay.
Without the credit limit, both Noval and Briones agreed that the creditor would eventually be unable to pay his debts.
Go advised store owners to only collect when the customer is likely to have money.
Noval said what she does is come up with a weekly credit collection system so that she can purchase additional stock every Sunday.
Briones said that there is also a need for “sales talk” (marketing) to promote slow-selling products to customers.
With the current economic condition, it is inevitable that more people would put up sari-sari stores.
“Many will try but the ones who know how to manage the financial (aspect) are the ones who will survive,” Go said. (DME)
