"Tindahan" -- sells more than any other store

Filbok! (Filipino Vocabulary)


"Tinda" (tin-da: verb) -- sell

"Tindahan" (tin-da-han: noun) -- store

"Paninda" (pa-nin-da: noun) -- store merchandfise

"pabili!" (pa-bi-li: phrase) -- A phrase which means, "I am buying!"

"sari-sari" -- (sa-ri-sa-ri: noun) -- assorted

"Buena Mano" -- (bwe-na ma-no: compound noun, Spanish for "good hand") -- the first person who buys something from a store, believed to bring good earnings to a store for the rest of the day. This may be taken as a human interpretation for the word "lucky stroke"

5:00 AM. Our day begins literally right after rising from our beds with our brains partially dazed from sleep -- and after we recover we light a candle at the altar, flick open the light switch, open the front door and hustle our 2 metal "istantes" (metal display racks for store goods) the large plastic tub filled with vegetables and other merchandise --out into the garage -- and we greet the dawn by opening our little sari-sari store. The picture above shows my mother and aunt preparing the store merchandise, and as you can see, the morning sky outside is pretty well dark.

By 5:30 AM the metal display stands are bedecked with our "paninda" (merchandise) -- though not complete yet since this picture was shot in the morning right before my mother's daily trip to the public market to buy all the goods that the store would need. A clothesline is also used as an impromptu display for other goods, usually snacks. After my mother arrives the tedious arrangement and calculation for curent prices begin. The rest of the day would be the daily romance between storeowner and customer -- provided the latter would really buy something and that he or she would have some money to buy with and never incure a debt, which according to superstitious store owners, is a definite jinx especially when done at the start of the day! Customers would make their presence felt by hollering out "pabili!" (or even rapping their coins at the gate)-- which would send me scurrying for my slippers to open the door, approach the customer and ask what he or she would like to buy.

Then there is the so-called "buena-mano" -- the very first person who buys anything from the store -- if the buena mano is good, then the store will earn good! If his hand in buying is bad -- never mind. But in those cases, just in case -- my mother or my aunt would ask me to take the guy's money and buy something else with it as soon as the guy leaves, lest his jinx lingers on like smoke in the store and drive out all the good luck away.

In the Philippines, the word "tindahan" means "store" -- and the term may be applied to any type of store -- but it is commonly used to denote those little general stores called "sari-sari stores" -- the word "sari-sari" which means assorted. In the US and elsewhere, goods are bought at large general stores, or in larger stores such as shopping malls like Walmart. We have malls and large general stores here in the Philippines, but for the ordinary Juan-de-la-Cruz, sari-sari stores will do, which in turn, had been a very integral part of Filipino life. In fact, it is virtually unthinkable for a neighbourhood to not have one. Sari-sari stores can sell a variety of things -- thats why it s called a "sari-sari" store! Things that may be bought in the local flea market (which in Filipino is called "palengke") may be bought at the store -- assorted vegetables (usually those needed in local cooking) snacks (people would call them junkfood but anyway they sell hot). Softdrinks are also bought here at reasonable prices. And as you can see, there is a stack of soft drink bottle at the back. There are also assorted candies (for children and people who chew or melt away their boredom or weariness) biscuits (to kill hunger) cigarretes (we sell four brands) instant noodles and other "instants" (instant flavoring!) bottles of cooking oil, soap, shampoo and toothpaste and feminine products (napkins).

We sell shampoo and toothpaste, of course who would not need one? In other nations shampoo and toothpaste is commonly sold and bought in squeegie plastic bottles and tubes. We DO buy these things in exactly the same way. But we, if not most of the time, buy them in small budget packs. See? Even shampoo and toothpaste companies have to make do with the prevailing financial attitudes of Filipinos, borne out of the need to scrimp and save to make ends meet! I almost laughed my teeth off when I learned in a commercial that a brand of liquor started selling their hard drink in small one-shot packs! HA! HA! HA!

The picture above shows my mother making a melon flavoured shake, on the table along with the blender are powder flavourings. During the summer and especially during the yearly basketball tournaments in an open court just a stone''s throw away, the shake "industry" was hot business. People would order not only one or two, but up to 6 even 10 orders! And at that time, as long as the sun stays hot, the business stays hot too -- right until the first thunderstorms that herald the rainy season to dampen things out and we would think it fortunate to have at least 10 orders for the whole day -- who'd think of buying something ice-cold when it's raining?

Besides a shake business, we also have a hotdog and hamburger stand. This is my aunt as she is prepping up a hotdog fora customer. We have to do this for the additional income. Just come to think of it. This store had already gone a long way off since it was conceived 6 years ago when my mother thought of setting up shop just to pass time. But now, the store has earned so much and has saved much that it is now the principal means of household income -- it is now primarilly responsible for paying the electric, water, cable, broadband and phone bills! Even the small 2-year old shake business has earned much that after its first season, it has saved enough money to buy a turbo halogen heated roaster and another blender!

I may not be working right now -- I may not be teaching, since I am burning my brains off with my thesis writing. But I am definitely not bumming around! At this point I am an accomplished storekeeper -- and how accomplished am I when in some instances, it seems that I could have wished to have sprouted 8 arms to simultaneously fry 3 hotdogs and churn 7 cold shakes at the same time? And not to mention the kids who pepper me when buying something from the candy stalls! By that time, when people start packing up ( as many as 8 customers in one time) all the three of us -- my mother, my aunt and me -- would be sweating like horses to handle them all -- the happy hours starts at 4:30 PM and ends at around 6:30 PM, right before prime time news and a few minutes to supper time.

Oh yes, before I forget, in a sari-sari store you do not only exchange goods with money, you exchange news! In the United States (correct me if I'm wrong though) people talk and share the latest ideas in diners and barbershops. In the Philippines, sari-sari stores take that role, since people get to meet there are talk about things. Sometimes gossip runs free among those hungry for a little hush-hush about who's-who -- in a store. So besides church, town hall and town plaza, the sari-sari store becomes the natural community meeting place. Just shown above is my mother and aunt, preparing 9 hot-dog orders for the community hall, as being fetched for by the two guys who in turn, are working for the subdivision waterworks. News and other things are exchanged as the oil fizzles and the hotdogs turn. These guys are regular in the store, so they also do the favor of informing us about important things regarding the waterworks -- when they're gonna turn the water valves off to fix some broken street pipe somewhere in the neigbourhood, at what time -- and we on the other hand, get to spread the news to everyone who drops by -- or buy ( get it?!? who drops buy?!? Ahhhh forget it!)

However, funny as our story may seem, at least in our part, things are more serious for other people who own sari-sari stores. To them, the store is really the primary source of income -- something that they direly need to make ends meet everyday. Money earned may be saved to pay for the children's tuition fees, to buy food, pay the electric bills. A sari-sari store may also be set up for the additional income -- so that more money may come into the house if the income of those who are working, is just simply not enough. So even the most meager of earnings becomes very important. In our case, we supplement the store's earnings with the shake and hamburger stands. In other stores besides cooking food, some run video CD rentals, or sell medicine ( like small drug counters in that case. Some even sell newspapers and some even have cell-phone instant loading businesses -- or even an impromptu pay phone in that matter -- all this effort just to earn a little more to make ends meet. If people won't do the extra effort, especially in these difficult times, things will definitely start to fall apart.

The sari-sari store did not just stay here -- it went abroad, even global! For whenever there is a Filipino community in some corner of the planet, there is mostly a Filipino store, selling the same things one would buy in some town in the Philippines. It delights me greatly that a Filipino store in US sells the same spices and condiments as one would see in another store in Laguna, halfway across the globe.

Our day ends as soon as the clock strikes 9:20 PM. By that time, we pack our goods, hustle our display cases into the living room ( just imagine what our house looks like during the night!) lock the gates, lock our doors and flick the lights off -- save for one porchlight. After counting the earnings and listing all the other things to be bought tomorrow, we fix ourselves for bed and offer the evening prayers and finally fall asleep -- only to wake up at 5 AM and begin the entire thing all over again!

(My Compliments to Marites Gimena {the girl who is posing with a cold shake in her hands} and to Kuya Nonoy and Ate Annie's brother { the 2 guys who are sitting on the bench while waiting for those hotdogs to fry} -- for their presences gave the pictures a little more story! I would also like to acknowledge the Faye Lareign Store and the Erlren's Drug Store and General Merchandise)