Title: Understanding the Challenges of Sari - Sari Store Owners at Brgy.

Sala Balete, Batangas

A sari-sari store is a modest part of town merchandise business that services the residents in the
area. These stores are not only a store of goods from basic snacks to household items, but they are also
a bustling and social location that draws the neighborhood altogether. These stores are an integral
aspect of the Filipino social environment which are generally located in front of people's houses.

Human's seemingly continuous high demands of necessities have continued to rise over the
generations. The considerable proportion of people consume their money on whichever items or things
they needed to satisfy their everyday sustenance. The sari-sari store is a typical aspect of household
communities in our country, including both city and provincial settings, expanding in the deprived
informal settlers, and even from the greatest upscale towns and cities.

Sari-sari stores face many challenges mostly with acquisition of products and transportation of
customer commodities in Brgy. Sala Balete, Batangas, as the place is far from the market and there was
not a main location to obtain merchandises all at inexpensive costs, so businesses are required to
purchase from several other grocery stores, go to separate locations to attain their extensive collection
at the most economical price points. In addition to these, any business initiative and sustainability may
be threatened by the insufficiency of preparation, commitment, or comprehension of basic business
financial concepts. The difficulty with the sari-sari store's incapacity to sustain may be associated with
the absence of experience and awareness regarding income, profitability, and financing, as well as a lack
of basic budgeting attributes. A store owner may have a broader perspective of how much it entails to
establish a business if they fully understand the discrepancy between the overall growth and
profitability. Nevertheless, most of the individuals we interacted with had just a faint idea of it.
Considering the money being utilized for completely valid issues, they were never used to further
supplement the sari-sari store. As a consequence, the owner will need to search alternative ways to
support product restocking. Customer debt could also disrupt sari-sari business owners' regular
earnings, compromising their incomes and possibilities to feed their family. These debts are always
entirely overlooked since store owners would hardly wish to demand their customers to resolve their
debts while potentially leaving them as well.

Sari-sari stores have an immense potential not only as a business for people in our community
but also as a means to provide products and commodities, therefore impacting the livelihoods of a large
number of individuals in Brgy. Sala Balete, Batangas. Likewise, the main objective of this research paper
is to determine the challenges faced by sari-sari store owners and to know if these have any bearing on
the elements that influence the success of a sari-sari store.