Who Are The Filipinos, Anyway? Part 4
I was reminded this morning of my wife’s post a few months back, My Two Fat Ladies. That’s because just a few minutes ago we heard the ladies calling and went out to see what they had for us today … Mmmm, some lovely pork loin … my wife (and my mother-in-law) make a delicious treat by slicing the loin thin and pan braising with onions, garlic and some calamansi seasoning … with some home fries or mashed potatoes and peas these little loin medallions will just make your lips smack, no kidding.
These two ladies, who aren’t really fat, are better known in the family as the "Gulai Girls" (Gulai is a generic Tagalog word for vegetables). the ladies provide a lot more than vegetables … you can order most any kind of meat, fresh fish, many prepared Filipino delicacies and even clothes and other items you’ll find in a country palengke (market). If it’s available, for the right price, they’ll be out in the street calling the next day they come by … pretty much every day, Monday through Saturday. Thyme know what’s fair, and if something isn’t good that day or the price is to high, they won’t bother brining it … they aren’t out to cook us or to get a certain number of sales per week … we’re their ’sukis’, a term for regular favored customers, and in the Philippines, merchants, at least from the countryside know and take care of their sukis.
The reason I brought them up today is that I’ve been introducing you to ‘real’ Filipinos as I know them, and these ladies are as real as it gets. They are sisters-in-law from a tiny town in Nueva Ecija, almost a whole province away from us … at least an hour’s jeepney ride, one way, probably closer to two hours counting connection times.
% or 6 days a week they leave their houses at "oh dark-thirty" ride all that way on several jeepnies, their wares for the day in baskets and sacks, fetch their little three-wheel bicycle cart and ply the streets in our ‘urban bedroom" community. Unlike other peddlers, they don’t go up and down the streets crying "Gulai" they just go to the houses of their ’sukis" …you have to ask one of their existing customers to get put on their list of addresses to visit.
Just the other day I had a very good example of their business sense. They came by at the usual time and in the corner of the bin with all their standard vegetable offerings was a huge, fresh-looking stalk of broccoli. They must have known how my eyes would light up. I love broccoli, haven had it in more than a year. I bought what they had, and it was fresh and good … I was only disappointed that they didn’t have more.
Unlike what I’ve heard from locals who "know", broccoli is readily available in provinces nearby … but shops and peddlers don’t carry it, because ‘no one eats it’. This not only shows you a little insight into the business brain of these two ladies, but gives an important lesson about doing business in the Philippines. Find a need and fill it … an often, Filipinos themselves are the worst source of information and advice. The actual investment these ladies have in their business is virtually nothing … most everyone reading this column has enough in their pocket at the moment to start a business like this … but what a great majority of people, both Filipinos and foreigners do not have is imagination and the entrepreneurial spirit strong enough to risk 30 pesos or so to see if there really is a market for something.
Thank you, dear ladies, for this simple course in Philippine Business 101 … don’t listen to what ‘they’ say, because ‘they’ are frequently just repeating a belief with no foundation in fact. As Nike is famous for saying, "Just Do It".
Related posts:
- Filipinos Do Love Burgers
- Who Are The Real Filipinos — Part 6
- Who Are The Real Filipinos, Anyway? Part 5
- Who Are The Filipinos, Anyway? Part 3
- Who Are The Filipinos, Anyway? Part 2
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February 26th, 2008 at 2:40 pm
Nice article Philly. I enjoyed it. We have some sellers like this who come to our house too.
February 26th, 2008 at 5:59 pm
Here in the UK one can get the shopping done online and delivered to the house. What these “Two Fat Ladies” are doing is the rural filipino equivalent, but better because you get a personal service with a smile everytime. I do admire them for their hard work.
February 26th, 2008 at 10:56 pm
Hi Philly -
Thanks for highlighting a part of the culture that most do not encounter.
Whenever my asawa and I are back home, we enjoy the early morning “visits” by the “Lobster & Fish Lady,” the “Vegetable Lady,” and other neighbors who bring their “excess self production” (eggs, manok, special vegetables, etc. that are over and above what their family needs/uses). Never really need to visit the thrice-weekly pelengke in town as we have everything presented to us each morning at our front gate.
Of course, we will invite them in for a little coffee and story - our version of a local newspaper! Best of all, they “take care of us” when it comes to quality control. They always let us know when fishing was bad, produce isn’t good, etc. and if they can’t offer replacements that they somehow come up with, they advise us on the condition of similar items at the pelengke. (Saved us some disappointing trips to town!) They’ve never steered us wrong, and we’ve never gotten ill from anything that’s passed through their hands.
(Just made myself homesick!)
February 27th, 2008 at 12:21 am
Hi Bob, Marilou, and Paul. thanks so much for visiting and for taking the time to comment. I find I really enjoy doing these ‘real people’ writeups. After reading what people write about the Philippines for years it would seem from the outside looking in that the Philippines is nothing but a land of surly immigration officers, crooked cab drivers and grafting politicians.
I’m no Pollyanna, there _are_ problem people … but they are the sore thumbs that stick out, while the huge majority goes about living and working with honesty, diligence and a smile, not getting the notice that they too deserve.
I’m really interested in these ladies as well, because we have plenty gulai vendors that come by as well, but the others carry nothing but the SoS (Same old Stuff) that the corner store has … they’d never think of throwing in broccoli or carrying along an expensive pork loin on ’speculation’.
As Paul mentioned, too, these are always people you can trust … a week or two ago Mita had asked them for pork loin and when they showed up the next day I went out to pick up our order … my mouth was all set for those little pork medallions for dinner … and the ladies said, “Oh it wasn’t nice today, we’ll bring it another time when it’s better.” I’m no sophisticated shopper, they knew I wanted it and they could have just brought it along and sold it, I’d have paid for it without even looking … but they won’t do business that way.