On sari-sari stores, sardines and reasoning.























Only a few streets in the Philippines show no sari-sari store. That is a generalization. Well off subdivisions don't have. Remote places may have one per town or barangay.

Where I live, there is a sari-sari store almost every corner to every twenty houses approximately. They range from small to extra small. They are not like grocery stores but when I need soap for my laundry, there is no need to go Rustan's or S&R. It is not too much if I say I don't even need to comb my hair to go there, or change my clothes. The apartment compound where we live is flanked by two small sari-sari. Literally our gate touches one.

Care for a noisy Nagaraya? Let's have some Hansel. Or some quick cooking pancit canton? Eggs in retail, who knows when they expire... or do they? Noodles of the "not quick cooking" type or is it misua? And yes, they even have rock salt.

The ever present item, among canned goods, is the Sardinas. I eat Sardinas de Noypi, may it be spanish style or sari-sari store style (pictured above). I hear a lot of horrifying anecdotes about canned and bottled foods but it doesn't move me. As long as I remember that vinegar is some acid (I put vinegar on it or calamansi or cook it in oil) and that I have hyperacidic stomach, I don't seem to care. My previous microbiology teacher will be dismayed, not by sardine eating, but by my concocted acid protection reasoning just to eat what I like. She might retrieve my grades and fail me. If that happens, I may have to change my reasoning to: I just trust the BFAD. don't you? Anyway, it is obvious, I like sardines.
























































































































Marlyn was busy that day.
























One more customer before I left. Do you know what he wanted? I guessed silently, "E load."
No, he was not buying anything.
He wanted some coins in exchange for his bill.
So, in a way, a sari-sari store can work like a bank too?
Oh yes, it can. Not just for coin-bill exchanging but for the lending it does, the latter beyond the scope of this post.