I've been made aware of this article which has been written by one of the owners of an on-line Filipino food store who seems a bit peeved with the recent news that some of us were celebrating. And it made me think, the big Supermarkets have for the most part killed off the local grocers, will the low priced Tesco's kill off the small niche ethnic food store? And will an article like this work? I know the hope is for it to be picked up by a newspaper and made into a bigger story, though I doubt it would help even then. When my wife comes to the UK I know that I will be taking her to the Woo Sang supermarket in China Town but should I see a local Tesco offer those same products for less, like other shoppers I will be counting those pennies and going elsewhere. That said, I'm also sad to admit it, I would like to support small business owners, but ultimately I have to look after number one Plus, I suspect most people think this way..
Hello Kuya, Unfortunately, I suspect that you are probably right and most people will do what is right for them. As the author of the story, I just wanted to clarify things. Although I am not Filipino, but American, I do live there, when not in the UK. I have lived there for 25 years, off and on. My wife, Mother Lily, started the store for something to do and to help out the Filipinos in the Watford area. The issue with Tesco will not only affect the shops, but also the importers, the local Filipino butchers and manufacturers, as well as the manufacturers in the Philippines. Can you see Tesco stocking dugo, papitan, bopis, etc.? If the small shops go out of business, how will the Filipino consumer be better off? We stock 600 products, Tesco will stock 50 to start and once they see what sells, that number will dwindle. Because they will stock the staples at a cheaper price than we can buy them, and the Filipino public goes to Tesco to buy, what happens in a year's time? Do you think that the small shops will stay in business? I have a low overhead because a lot of my business is internet based, and I have over 500 customers around the world. In saying that, I made a grand total of £56 last year in profit, so why don't I just close up? A lot of our customers tend to come around in the middle of the month, when they dont have any money left, because we give them credit until their payday. Do you think Tesco will do the same? We continue to try to help out. This isn't a money making proposition for me. The whole purpose of the article is to get people to think and take action. Having been around Filipinos for over 25 years, I find that a lot will complain, but will not take action. I sent around a letter that I sent to the Ambassador and DTI, as well as to Malacanang. All I wanted was for some of the other shops to follow suit and let the powers that be realize that they had not considered the deeper implications of their actions, and get a boycott going against Manning Impex. Although 18 shops have said they would, it yet remains to be seen how many actually will, thus the press release. Filipinos need to realize that together they have power, separated, they have none. Filipino foods will never become mainstream in all Tesco stores, but it may be enough to put a lot of shops out of business. The knock on effect will be less choice for the Filipino consumer in the end, as Tesco takes the lion share of the business and leaves the crumbs. There is no sense in stocking 600 products, as we do , when our best selling items are being sold at Tesco. Planet Philippines has already said that they will run the article, and it has already been published in the US, Canada, Europe, and even in the Philippines. We are awaiting confirmation from Hello Philippines and the Philippine Star that they will publish it. It is interesting that Manning Impex is already contacting all of us about buying from them, as they try to do damage control. I have told them that I would buy from them again, if I get the same price as Tesco. No answer, so far. One of the shops postd on the Embassy Facebook page asking why they supported this and they denied that they had anything to do with the tie up between Manning Impex and Tesco, even though they released the letter from the DTI taking credit for it. So much for plausible deniability!
Surely, there has to be another way! Is there any way that the small ethnic businesses can get together in some sort of cooperative movement and deliver their services in tandem instead of competing against each other? I can only think of the analogy that if a bunch of little fish are fighting each other but then whilst they’re busy fighting each other a bigger fish comes along and gobbles them all up, what was the point in fighting? Looking out for one another would have been a much better solution. Perhaps the answer to your problem is not trying to get the public on your side, they will always go where it is convenient for them to go to. Maybe, it is in some new way of thinking, some new business strategy that supports your business but supports the community also.
That would be a great idea, unfortunately, I don't believe the demographics would support this. Most of the ethnic Filipino stores are situated away from each other in different locales, except for instances like in Earl's Court in London. A co-operative organization needs to be just that...a cooperative effort. It has always been my experience that it is hard to get Filipino's in agreement. If you take any large Filipino community, you will not find one Filipino organization, but several. Due to infighting within the groups, there is always someone that doesn't want to go with the wishes of the majority and then starts another group. We have seen this everywhere we have been. Trying to get all the store owners to agree on a course of action and then following through would be a logistical nightmare. This is actually a case in point. We contacted every Filipino shop that we could find and sent them the information about what we were doing. We even sent copies of the letter to the DTI, Ambassador and President, so everyone could follow suit. According to my contacts in the Embassy, our letter is the only one they have received. We did receive a couple of replies thanking us and I asked them to contact a reporter that wanted to do a story, but the reporter said he had been unable to contact them so far, by email, or telephone to get their opinion and they have not contacted him. We had another shop contact us and said there was an organization of Filipino entrepreneurs and wanted to know if we wanted to join. We said yes and he was to send us the information. He was supposedly in charge of this organization, but has yet to send us anything.
The already established large generally Chinese owned Asian grocers already stock a small range of Philippine products, they will probably not be affected by this kind of move by Tesco as they have the scale to survive. The small guys like you will struggle because you have not got the scale and buying power with the importers, you were quite right to ask Manning Impex to give you Tesco's price, Tesco and the other giant Internationals have long been bullies in every market they enter and I agree that ultimately the likes of Tesco will only go for the really popular stuff where they can get enough volume to turn a profit. Saying that, I also suspect that the real reason for them introducing specific ethnic ranges is to simply pull in the additional generic business, in specific locations they will have identified large enough communities to make offering specific foods an enticement for families to change supermarket loyalties. To them this has nothing to do with providing a useful service but is simply a way to get more bodies through the door.
Good article... The way I see it for the time being is that when we go to our small store, we seem to stay ages, just to keep up with the "chismis" and idle chika-chika.... Which one wouldn't be able to get from Tesco............. And that, for my wife is ... Priceless.... Also from time to time, a few pinays seem to meet there for interminable eating contests...:grouphug: So for us the local store is a source of community spirit and friendliness, a totally alien concept to Tesco...
We have a Filipino specific store here. Small but nonetheless here. Just out of curiosity, the other day, I asked if they ever considered selling Filipino streetfood and to my surprise they said they were already looking into it.
