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How to Succeed in Your Sari-Sari Store

How to Succeed in Your Sari-Sari Store

Most of the owners would want to put up a sari-sari store for various reasons. Most often than not though, it's about taking some nice profit while providing the daily needs of the family. Way wrong reason I say. Why? Because in a matter of months, a once full-blooming store will eventually start thinning and run dry because the capital has evaporated already!

There must be some discipline involved! This is the best, yet the hardest strategy that can save the business and make it prosper.

You should consider the store as if it's not yours. Simply put, if you want noodles, softdrinks or a biscuit, buy them with your own money!

Don't take a noodle or any of them for FREE! Pay what is due to the store so that there is no loss in your capital.

Consuming goods will eventually shrink the business, no matter how huge your initial capital is. I've seen it a number of times already! My niece and nephews would grind out every snack they could, we'd even have our lunch for free, courtesy of canned goods from the store. The result -- the store's capital shrunk little by little 'til we're left with little display in the shelf, so few we have to close it. Ugh.

One good thing about owning your own sari-sari store is it that gives you convenience of not having to force yourself on making credits or “utang” on other stores. But for the business to survive and grow, you MUST consider that credit as if you owe it to another and not to yourself. You should pay that credit you owe to your own sari-sari store!


Basic and initial items:


Cigarettes

Drinks / Beverages (softdrinks, bottled juice, liquors and beers)

Toiletries (shampoo, toothpaste, bath soap, dish-washing liquid, bar soap, detergents, bleach, etc.)

Canned Goods

Noodles

Cooking aid (frying oil, soy sauce, vinegar, powder mixes, MSG, egg, garlic, ketchup, tomato paste, sugar, salt, etc.) Powders in Sachet (Juice powders, coffee, milk, coffee mate, choco powder, etc.) Snacks or what we refer to as “chichirya”

Retailed Snacks - these are the typical “tig-mamiso” or 1 peso-valued snacks such as Boy Bawang, Sugo, etc. As of writing, 1 pack of these goods costs around 15 to less than 20 pesos and each pack normally contains 20 pcs. So the normal profit is only small, ranging from 2 to 5 pesos per pack.

Big Snacks - these are those solo packs we normally get in convenient stores. Sometimes these snacks also have smaller packs in retail as mentioned in no. 1. Examples of these are Snacku, Chippy, Piattos, etc. Prices vary, but you can profit from 2 to 8 pesos each. Sweet Goods - these are candies, chocolates, lollipops, milk powders, bubble gums and mints. It's better to put them on glass or plastic jars with caps to keep them away from ants.