Even with the easing of the quarantine measures, there has not been much improvement on the plight of sari sari stores and carinderias all over the country.
Both micro retail formats cited difficulties in buying goods to sell to date such as they had to downsize their operations by up to 90 percent.
A rapid retailers assessment conducted by the Philippine Association of Stores and Carinderia Owners (PASCO) showed 24 percent of sari sari stores remain closed as of July.
This just a percentage point lower than the 25 percent in the survey conducted by PASCO at the height of the community quarantines in April.
Carinderias, however, saw marked improvement with 51 percent closed as of July from 75 percent in April.
For March to April, up to 49 percent of the sari sari stores had experienced difficulties in buying goods to sell but the proportion surged to 85 percent as of June and July.
For carinderias, 38 percent had a hard time to get goods to sell in March and April but this moved up to 82 percent in June and July.
About 39 percent of sarisari stores and 44 percent have downsized operations of a range of 70 up to 90 percent
As of July, 45 percent of the sari sari stores and 57 percent of carinderias surveyed had access on the government’s social amelioration program.
The results of the survey showed how micro businesses which are on the grassroots level are affected by the pandemic.
“The micro retail sector is among the most affected in this situation,” PASCO said.
The survey was conducted in three rounds for select members of PASCO to gather information that serve as general indicators of the effects of the community quarantine in their business operations.
The March-April survey covered 442 respondents nationwide while the June-July poll had 530 respondents.
One company that has been empowering sari-sari stores and carinderias is Coca Cola Philippines which recently partnered with the Department of Trade and Industry and two of the country’s leading micro-financial institutions for the establishment of ReSTART or Rebuilding Sari-Sari Stores Through Access to Resources and Trade program which will allocate and distribute P157 million in funds to more than 15,000 retailers whose operations were affected by the COVID-19 pandemic and community quarantine.
