Download SOCORRO RAMOS (The National Book Store

Nanay Coring to family and friends—
started selling bananas, vinegar, and wooden
shoes at age of five to help her grandmother
and mother in a wet-market stall in Sta. Cruz,
Laguna, her father’s hometown. The business
went under, and when her father died in
1928, the family moved to Manila where she
and her six siblings—she was the second
youngest—worked each summer vacation to
earn their school allowance. She worked in a
candy factory, a cigarette factory, a factory
making shorts, and then as a waitress in a
restaurant.
In 1940, Socorro Ramos, barely 18, started
working as a salesgirl at a Goodwill Bookstore branch
owned by her brother in Escolta, Manila. Because of
her selling skills, Ramos was put in charge of the store.
It was only after marrying Jose Ramos that her dream
of the setting up a bookstore finally materialized. The
couple started the first National Book Store as a stall
shop in Escolta selling supplies, novels, and textbooks.
Unable to afford extra help, Ramos worked not only as
manager but also as cashier, purchaser, saleslady,
janitor, and helper. When war broke out, strict
censorship regulations forced many retailers in Manila,
including the Ramos couple, to shift trades. They
moved to selling soap, candies, and slippers instead.
After the Japanese occupation, the Ramos
couple were able to rebuild a barong-barong in
the corner of Soler and Avenida Rizal in time
to catch the boom of post-war business. Using
the door of their house as a counter, Ramos
again started selling textbooks, notebooks, pad
papers, and pencils in time for the first
postwar school year in the country. Just like
that, National Book Store made its transition
from being a general merchandise store to a
store that sells books and more. Business went
well mainly because only a few stores sold
school supplies during that time.
In 1948, Typhoon Gene entered the
Philippines destroying dozens of houses and
property including the Ramos'. Their house
and store were taken down and all the
merchandise soaked following the typhoon.
But this did not bring down the Ramos couple.
They worked harder, they slept for only three
hours a day spending the rest of their time
rebuilding the business. Eventually, through
will and determination, the Ramos couple
were able to construct a two-story building
complete with mezzanine that would be their
store for years.
After more than a decade, Ramos acquired
a nine-story building along Avenida Rizal, and in
1963, the construction of the Albecer Building
(Albecer taken from Ramos' three children Alfredo, Benjamin, and Cecilia) began. Little did
the Ramos couple know that the Albecer Building
would be the first of many buildings they would
build. Socorro Ramos now has more than 2,500
employees in over 80 branches of her once-small
stall. From a humble beginning, Ramos' National
Book Store is the Philippines' biggest bookstore
chain and an icon in the country's retail industry.
Today,
National
Book
Store
is
considered as the largest chain of bookstores
in the country. They have ventured into
several businesses 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, a 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 run all these.
As an entrepreneur, Socorro
Ramos received some of the country's
notable awards such as:
 Agora Award for Outstanding
Achievement in Entrepreneurship
(1991)
DTI Outstanding Filipino Retailer
Award (2001)
Woman Entrepreneur of the Year
(2004)
The Outstanding Filipino
(TOFIL) Award (2006)
Filipino-Chinese Federation of
Business and Professional Women
of the Philippines Award for
Business (2007)