Ms. Ric
9 Oct 2007

 

 

Ms. Belen Fernandez may have started small and built an empire, but I wonder how many of these small sari-sari stores have shut down because of her empire? Her grocery stores/malls are popping up everywhere.

Isn’t it true, that the average sari-sari store in the midst of the barrio or town is operated by your average mother, grandmother, aunt whose equity is not in the millions, not in the hundreds of thousands, not even in the tens of thousands, but mere thousands if even that much?

These are the same storeowners whose equity is more sweat than anything else. Their average income makes it impossible to offer deep discounts making competition with the bigger chains very one sided.