Prince Hypermart All Set For 9th Sari-Sari Store Festival

Confab to strengthen local micro-entrepreneurs

Sari-sari store owners from all over Cebu province are set to get together for the Prince Hypermart’s Sari-Sari Store Festival on August 8, 2014 at the Mandaue City Sports Complex.

“Nine of ten sari-sari stores close shop after a year of opening. The Sari-Sari Store Festival is designed to empower the small entrepreneur and help them propel the economy thru micro-retailing,” said Robert Go, Prince Hypermart CEO and president, in a media briefing held Friday.

Now on its 9th year, the Sari-Sari Store Festival aims to strengthen the local sari-sari store community through an exhibition and helpful discussions on entrepreneurship, micro-finance, merchandising and inventory, financial literacy, and sari-sari store best practices and success stories.

“Sari-sari stores employ a huge chunk of self-employed working forces and are responsible for more than 50 percent of the economy in the countryside. We see the need to help these small but in fact very significant contributors to the economy,” said Go.

By helping push the growth of local sari-sari stores, Go said the Sari-Sari Store Festival is also giving the rapidly-growing Philippine economy a hand. “If the small and micro-entrepreneurs grow, the Philippine economy will continue to grow,” he said.

With the theme “Tindahang Royalty sa Sari-Sari Store Festival 2014,” the event is spearheaded by local retail warehouse club chain Prince Hypermart, formerly the Prince Warehouse Club, which is known for cheap prices and exceptional value in both wholesale and retail.

This year’s gathering promises to be bigger, grander and more fun-filled with over 2,000 sari-sari store owners, suppliers, distributors, sponsors, and exhibitors expected from all over the province of Cebu.

Prince Hypermart Chief Operations Officer Rhea Go said that the Sari-Sari Store Festival continues to be the landmark event of Prince Hypermart which presently serves 46,000 members who are mostly sari-sari store owners from all over the Visayas and Mindanao.

“Sari-sari stores account for a large part of the market segment we serve. Though they possess lesser capital, sari-sari stores in their respective localities gain more with the remarkably low prices on our grocery goods to resell for their stores,” Go said.

“Holding the Sari-Sari Store Festival is our way of giving back to faithful customers who have contributed much for the growth of Prince Hypermart through the past two decades,” she added.

Formed in April 1990, the Prince Hypermart currently has seven branches in Cebu found in the North Reclamation Area, Old MCWD building in M.C. Briones, Danao City, Minglanilla, Dalaguete, Argao, and recently, Daanbantayan.

The retail chain has branches outside of Cebu in other parts of the Visayas: Tanjay, Negros Oriental; Silay, Negros Oriental; Baybay, Naval Biliran, Maasin and Abuyog in Leyte. It also has branches in Cabadbaran, Agusan del Sur and Oroquieta, Ozamis Occidental in Mindanao.

Rina Go, Prince Hypermart supply chain manager, said that interested parties can still become sponsors and exhibitors for this year’s Sari-Sari Store Festival.

She added that sponsors will be given strategically-located stalls in the event venue where they can showcase their goods and sell them to the public at wholesale prices.

For the past years, the Sari-Sari Store Festival has been held at the Cebu International Convention Center. Due to the damage caused by the September 2013 earthquake, this year’s festival will be staged at the Mandaue Sports Complex.