Thursday, August 23, 2007

Tending the sari-sari store

youngvendor1

youngvendor2

youngvendor3

I don't need to explain this, do I?

With the popularity of Sidney's My Sari-Sari Store, and the almost (always) featuring it in Mike's The Fiery Scotsman, I have no doubt that most bloggers already know what sari-sari store essentially and culturally means to us, Filipinos.

Sari-sari literally means "various kinds". So, in essence, it is a store that sells various kinds of goods, mostly food items and other basic necessities (sugar, salt, candles, matches, detergent, etc.) and others (cigarettes, alchohol, etc.).

Economic importance: instead of buying the whole pack, you can buy in units (tingi system) therefore it's much cheaper!

Social and cultural importance: a place to socialize and meet people, better than staying inside the house, cheaper than hanging out inside Starbucks (the store sells instant coffee too!).

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10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Excellent choice of using B&W, these images pop off my screen. The 3 are excellent, but the first is my favorite.

Thanks for the plug 8-)

pieterbie said...

And I hasten to add: a place where you can meet good looking sari sari shop girls. Fjew, I'd go out of my way to shop at this one.
She has a lovely smile.
I know the concept of the sari sari store thanks to Sidney, of course. I'll go and have a look at the Haggis Basher's site now, since you have plugged him.
How lucky you were to find such a willing model. I'll go and ask for some photos of her and say that you sent me :-)

Anonymous said...

Hehe. Katuwa naman tong series. Feel na feel nung tindera. Yeah. Probably by now a lot of foreigners would have an idea what a sari-sari store looks like thanks to Sidney's photoblog.

Anonymous said...

lol. for us, we live in hdb and we call the shops as "mama shop". then there are also the shop houses. they also sell in units instead of fixed weight in packets. i've asked around and apparently, "mama" is actually hindi and i don't have any hindi friends with me at the moment.

anyway, have a great weekend ahead!

Anonymous said...

enfermee dans la prison des objets a consommer!! My dear :(

Anonymous said...

i prefer buying in a sari sari store than 7/11, simply much cheaper.

Sidney said...

I need some salt...
Where is that sari-sari store? ;-)
I like her smile in the last picture!

Darrix said...

Ey rayts, have you heard of the latest from Nikon? The D3 and D300 cameras? really really nice cameras ;)

Anonymous said...

She appears to be enjoying her post at the Sari-sari store...

my gulch said...

mike,
thanks and my pleasure. glad you like 'em.

peter,
i agree, my model is pretty. about the "willingness" ah, err, she wasn't but I am a persistent photographer so.

ferdz,
onga. salamat.

tien,
mama shop? wow, that is quite a name. I believe in India, they have the same concept. it comes with another name but the concept is synanymous. they even serve tea.

lasiate,
bonjour! nice of you to drop by. i speak and write rather awful in French but I get what you mean. yea, she looks like she is locked up in there or in prison. the setting is actually a necessity for every sari-sari store here. merci.

iskoo,
onga pero marami ka ring mabibili sa 7/11 na hinde mabibili sa sari-sari. at isa pa, hindi siya 24 hours.

sidney,
salt is cheap. that store is somewhere in Laguna.

darrix,
onga! ang ganda...ang ganda rin ng presyo!

chris,
she is...but only after a few shots. she needs some getting used to.

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