Pinky's Sari Sari Store in Ferrol:
One of the
highlights of our time in Ferrol was our visits to small cottage scale businesses: participants in our workshops. These visits show the ingenuity and
creativeness of women with limited resources forging ahead to make the lives of
their families. We thank Allan for his comments on each (SWOT analysis, Strength, Weakness, Opportunities, Threats).
 |
| Pinky standing in front of her Sari Sari store in Ferrol |
Pinky operates a very
attractive stand-alone Nipa palm Sari Sari store selling a variety of food
staples in Poblacion Ferrol. Her product array includes vegetables, some of
which she grows in a small garden situated right on the family property, eggs
sourced from her small flock of chickens (hens and roosters free ranging right
on the property), a number of prepared hot foods for direct sale.
 |
Pinky's small productive garden. (Corn, Tanya, beans shown here)
Though most of the garden area at the moment seems between crops, we did see climbing (string or pole) beans, corn, eggplant, banana, sugar cane, some lovely orchids (she says ornamental plants and flowers are her hobby), tamarind.
|
 |
| Pinky prepares a vegetarian dish using yesterday's vegetables. |
As family
income around here is so limited and Pinky is able to afford to procure larger
supplies of certain items like cooking oil in 4 liter containers, she breaks
down goods like these into smaller lots (not only 1 liter bottles, but also into
small plastic bags holding about ¼ cup of oil and with the mouth of the bag
tied off) that are sold of course for lesser amounts of money at a time.
 |
| Four liters is too costly for a family in Ferrol. |
 |
| Oil and shrimp broken down into affordable quantities. |
Other
items in her product array include fresh fish (unrefrigerated), dried fish and a dried fish
product (appearance of tiny shrimp kind of ground up or finely diced) also in
the small plastic bags probably selling for 5 pp each.
 |
| Dried salted fish |
Bread from one (or both
) of the two Poblacion bakeries is handled here as is also packaged noodles
from Odiongan.
 |
| Bakery products attractively displayed above vegetables. |
 |
| Fresh noodles from Odiongan. |
There is an
attractive glass faced product display case which appears to be used mainly for
holding the prepared ready to eat food/meal items. This food is prepared
in the very rudimentary kitchen area which is pretty much part of this more or less
open area store. Cats, dogs and chickens are free range throughout. Smoke from
the bamboo enclosed (3 sides) kitchen area wafts throughout.
Pinky is an
established business woman at Ferrol. She also buys and sells at the weekly
market in Odiongan. Under local conditions and the constraints that exist in
this environment I would say that she is doing quite well, though by our
standards, very modestly. As a result, probably she has helped to lift her
family up economically (income-wise) from where it would be otherwise. The
family home is on the same lot in Poblacion as the store. The structure is of
medium size and constructed of concrete and cement block and appears to be of
good quality for Poblacion.
 |
Pinky selling fresh fruit, vegetables and fish.
|
No comments:
Post a Comment