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SMALL BUSINESS ENTERPRISE
NATIONAL
BOOK STORE
SUCCESS STORY
February 27, 2009 Rags to
Riches Entrepreneur 28
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National Book Store, the
Philippine’s largest chain
of bookstores is the
featured success story for
today as we witness the
life story of the woman
behind it, Socorro Ramos
or more commonly known
to her staffs as Nanay
Coring.
Her story is truly an
inspiring one as she built
the business National
Book Store from scratch
with a lot of challenges
and hurdles as she and
her husband Jose Ramos
literally built and rebuilt
the business three times
from scratch. That’s the
true entrepreneurial spirit
with enough courage and
determination.
Nanay Coring or Maria
Socorro Cancio in her
early years was born in
Sta. Cruz, Laguna on
September 23, 1923. Ever
she was young, she grew
up in an entrepreneurial
environment as one of the
six children born to
entrepreneur parents and
grandmother. Her parents
used to run a store selling
a lot of stuffs from slippers
to clothes and a lot more
while her grandmother
had a market stall where
the young Socorro got
used to seeing customers
withdraw items on credit.
Unfortunately, her
grandmother did not
manage the business
carefully not maintaining
a list of those items
availed on credit and their
business fell.
After that event, they
went to Manila. Her
mother struggled hard to
feed six children and the
young Socorro considered
herself as lucky if she got
Issue # 862
NBC
Nanay Coring
February 27, 2009
IN THIS ISSUE: ENTREPRENEUR
money from her mother.
Her elder sisters helped
the family by working in a
candy and bubble gum
factory and she spent her
summer doing summer
jobs too. In one instance,
young Socorro was hired
to peel off the paper used
in old cigarettes so that it
can be reuse to make new
fresh cigarette sticks. She
received 5 centavos per
pack of cigarettes. But the
young Socorro started her
entrepreneurial skills and
hired kids and their
neighborhood paying
them 5 centavos for every
two pack of cigarettes
leveraging her efforts.
Since then, the young
Socorro was on her way to
become an entrepreneur
as early as 10 years old!
Immediately after
graduating from Arellano
High School, she worked
as a salesgirl at Goodwill
Book Store owned by the
family of her present
husband Jose Ramos.
Socorro’s brother Manuel
NBC NANAY CORING | Issue #
married one of the Ramos
children and in 1940, they
needed someone to look
after the branch they set
up along Escolta Street,
on the ground floor of
Panciteria National. Jose
Ramos took over it and
asked Socorro to work on
him in that branch. They
renamed it as National
Book Store.
Their love story began but
her parents were against
with it as Socorro was just
18 years old back then.
She was told to stay in the
province to keep away
from marrying Jose
Ramos. But as they say,
true love never dies, the
young Socorro with just 11
pesos in her pocket,
struggled to went back to
Manila to marry Jose.
Because of this act, her
family was so furious and
angry that they
considered her dead
already. It was short-lived
though lasting only until
Socorro gave birth to her
twins named Alfredo, who
is now the President of
National Book Store and
Benjamin, now the Vice
President.
As mentioned above, the
business National Book
Store faced a lot of
challenges as it was built
and rebuilt three times
from scratch!
First, Socorro admitted
that it was not easy to
start the business from
scratch. She recalled that
during the Japanese
occupation, they would
look on each and every
book title on sale. If they
found questionable books,
they would just tear the
pages off leaving them
useless. So instead of
selling books, Socorro and
Jose decided to fill their
bookshelves with stuffs
from candies, soap,
slippers, papers, and
cigarettes. During the war,
she would transfer goods
to her smaller stores.
Second, when the
Japanese were driven
away, it was now the time
for the Americans. Their
National Book Store stall
in Escolta was damaged in
the war. They recovered a
bit by selling unused
greeting cards and
uncensored books, which
they had hidden in their
home.
Third, in 1945, they
relocated their National
Book Store previously
located at Escolta to
Avenida. The business is
doing quite well during
first few post-war school
years but unfortunately,
three years after, a Book Store business was
typhoon blew the roof of
their store and they were
left with soaked books and
stuffs that were worthless.
Again, for the third time,
2
they have to start from
zero.
They struggled hard to
rebuilt National Book
Store for the third time.
But since then, every
centavo that they earned
were used to buy the lot
where the Rizal Avenue
Branch of National Book
Store stands to this day.
Today, National Book
Store is considered as the
largest chain of
bookstores in the country.
They have ventured into
several businesses
already such as a
convenience-type store
named NBS Book Express,
publishing companies
named Cacho-Hermanos
printing press, Anvil Books
and Capitol-Atlas
Publishing, another book
store named Powerbooks,
music store named Tower
Records and Music One,
Gift Gate, the home of
Hello Kitty and Swatch,
and a department store
named Crossings
department store.
Socorro’s children and
relatives ran all these.
Socorro Ramos’ life and
success story and the
challenges that she faced
with her business National
another inspiring story. In
fact, it was recognized
when she was chosen as
the Ernst and Young’s
NBC NANAY CORING | Issue # 3

Philippine Entrepreneur of
the Year in 2005.

Today, at the age of 85,

Socorro Ramos or Nanay
Coring acts as the General
Manager of National Book
Store. And she told that
the core values in her
success are to keep
learning, being actively
involved in the business,
being able to read
changes and act on them
immediately, and most of
all, never give up!

Credits: Go NeGOsyo

Question: What can you

learn from the successful
entrepreneur mentioned
in the article who started
from small beginnings?