Jul 31, 2007

Upgrading the Sari-Sari Store Sign



Surf (yes, the soap maker), has begun innovating the old, reliable sari-sari store sign in the provinces. In Tagaytay and Sta. Rosa, we recently saw the transformation from signs hand-painted on galvanized sheets to those using scanned photos of the store owners and most probably printed with large-format printers. Click "Read more" for more pictures!

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If you look closely at the photo above, you'll find Jan Jan sitting on the left side of the store. Amusingly, Jan Jan does not look like my expectation of how a "Jan Jan" may look like -- bubbly and probably always smiling. :)

Incidentally, the sign above shows two common patterns in naming sari-sari stores: Two Brothers, Two Sisters, Kambal (Twins), etc; and a proclivity to put an apostrophe in every trailing "S", as the sign above exhibits.


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Photos by Data Canlas

4 comments:

Robby Villabona said...

Hmmm... a fresh idea, and quite original. But when you think about it, how's having the owner's photo on the sign useful for the store? They shrunk the store's name, expanded the "Surf" sign, and added the photo beside it -- making it look like the owners are endorsers of Surf.

Unilever: 1, Sari-sari store owners: 0

Unknown said...

Tama ka dyan about Surf getting more space. Pero if you think about it, even the old store signs had this quirk :)

Robby Villabona said...

Not having measured it (judging only by the eye), the old one's look like they had more space for the store's name (since there didn't use to be a picture).

I think the 'trick' in this new sign is that the store owner's picture looks more like part of the surf area than of the store name (and makes the Surf endorsement look a lot more personal).

Anonymous said...

It oly shows that even the big manufacturers are now "make patol" to sari-sari stores.I find the idea og surf signage gimmick looks very ugly coz you know why? It looks dirty and less attractive.