A Sari-Sari Store

We go to a sari-sari store for just about everything! Shampoo, soap, rice, soy sauce, vinegar, cooking oil, cigarettes, soft drinks, biscuits, sardines, ready-to-cook noodles, and probably a thousand other things (would you believe even a Biogesic!). Taken from the word "sari-sari" which literally means, assorted. It is a miniature supermarket, has almost everything that a supermarket sells, but the only difference is – everything is sold a piece. We can buy a sachet of shampoo, a bar of soap, and if we ran out of cooking oil, vinegar, or soy sauce, they are re-packed and sold in smaller volumes.

We (as a culture) have totally embraced the concept of the little store, that it would be unthinkable not to have a sari-sari store in the community! Aside from being the source of just about everything, a sari-sari store in the community is also the information hub of the baranggay and landmarks for directions. Anybody who would like to find somebody or an address could always enlist the help of the tindera or storekeeper.

There is however a little catch… the little sari-sari store can horrifyingly replicate itself, much faster than a blink of an eye, and can not be stopped.

This road is just a few meters long however at the end of it is...

Lo and behold! Another sari-sari store...

Actually I have already lost count of the sari-sari stores sprouting in our area... Nobody seems to mind anyway.