Puregold enters ‘sari-sari’ store space

Supermarket chain operator Puregold Price Club Inc. is converting the sari-sari stores under its “Tindahan ni Aling Puring” program into mini-marts, as the retail chain strengthens its commitment to help small enterprises take their businesses to the next level.

Antonio E. Delos Santos, vice president for operations at Puregold, explained that  the program was crafted to help their most loyal sari-sari store partners “level up” their businesses, and enable them to become more profitable over the long run.

“We will be taking care of renovating the store, providing guidance on what to sell, how much to price it, and how to merchandise it, so it will look good on the shelves. We don’t just sell the products. We want to make sure whatever we sell to our members, they’ll be able to sell it to the end consumers,” Delos Santos explained.

“We want to have as many as we can, but there are no definite targets. Each of the sari-sari stores must meet certain qualifications like space. This will be launched by third quarter this year but we are already starting with pilot projects,” he added.

The project, which began in the second quarter, will cover 10 stores, of which three have been completed.

Delos Santos explained that a typical sari-sari store is your usual hole-in-the-wall type of establishment, where products for sale could be hung on walls and windows, while a mini-mart is characterized by an expanded product line-up, as well as bigger spaces and shelves where products could be neatly stacked and arranged.

The difference also, is that under Puregold’s Tindahan ni Aling Puring program, P5,000 in capital would be enough for sari-sari store inventory, while a mini-mart may require some P20,000 worth of inventory to adequately fill up a 15-sqm space, Delos Santos explained.

He added that while the capital to be used to buy the grocery items will have to come from the business owner, the cost of renovations will be shouldered by Puregold.

“We will also help them in extending their product line up, and in choosing the items that will fit their locations. We will also assist them achieve optimum pricing,” he added.

At present, there are over 300,000 members of the program, the bulk of which are sari-sari store owners. The rest are carinderia and bakery owners, and caterers.

Those who want to be part of the conversion program can apply, while other owners may be pre-selected by Puregold, he added.

Last week, Puregold Price Club hosted its 11th Tindahan ni Aling Puring (TNAP) Sari-Sari Store Convention.

The five day gathering saw the launching of the new Tindahan ni Aling Puring membership card that opens up a range of highly-exclusive benefits for its members such as easier structure to earn points through their purchases and an enhanced redemption system of freebies and prizes.

Free training and seminars were also provided to enable Aling Puring members to learn about new fast-moving products, trends and marketing strategies designed for small business owners.

For this year, Puregold is targeting to put up a total of 25 new stores across the country, with each store costing some P100 million to P150 million. This means that Puregold, owned by billionaire Lucio Co, may have to fork out over P3 billion for its planned expansion program.