Grand Bossing at 88

What started as a stall in Escolta selling textbooks and G.I. novels is now National Book Store, the largest bookstore chain in the Philippines with affiliate companies Powerbooks, Crossings Department Store, Anvil Books, Atlas Publishing, Cacho Hermanos Printing Press, NBS Book Express (that’s only to name a few), thanks to Mrs. Socorro Cancio-Ramos. National Book Store outlasted their competition back in the day, which included Alemar, Philippine Education and Vasquez. Hers is a story to inspire every aspiring businessman, and the stuff fairy tales are made of. People say she can sell almost anything to absolutely anyone. She is one of the most charming people you will meet in your life. These are 10 things you should know about “super salesgirl” Socorro Ramos, more fondly known as Nanay Coring.

1. She is still very much the boss and goes to work every day, entertains and negotiates with publishers who are in town, and checks the warehouse and the branches. To this day! And she is 88!

“You have to be an example,” Nanay Coring explains. “They can say, ‘eh kung siya nagbubulakbol, eh di magbubulakbol din ako.’ But if you show that you are there on time in the morning up to leaving time, then you are the example.” She doesn’t take vitamins and is not on any maintenance medicine. She says she has been blessed with good health. What keeps her going? “I eat a lot,” she says, and bashfully shares that lechon is her favorite.

Her bodyguards: There are 233 saints and angels keeping Nanay Coring company at home,and she has 35 more in her office.“Wala na akong gagawin pa kundi magdasal,” she says. “Ang mga anghel, sila ang bodyguards ko.”

2. On tablets, e-books, e-zines, and the Internet: “I tell you, there’s nothing like a book.”

She says this about books: “It’s something that you can write on, highlight if you like a certain paragraph, you can smell it, showcase it, hand it down to your children and your children’s children.” On National Book Store having a website, she says there’s no choice since that’s part of the game. “It’s a sad thing if books will disappear, although I don’t think that will happen.”

3. Nanay Coring in numbers:

11: Number of great grandchildren, from nine grandchildren from her three children — Alfredo and wife Presentacion Sunico, Benjamin and wife Virginia Sian, and daughter Cecilia and husband Maximo Licauco.

268: Number of santos in her collection, 233 in her home and 35 in her office. Her favorite is St. Anthony, the patron saint of lost things, because “Isang beses nawalan ako ng singsing, I prayed and prayed to him, and I found it.”

98: Grade she received in her favorite subject back in school, which was biology.

4,500: Current number of employees of National Book Store in 150 branches nationwide.

15: Awards received, including the Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award in 2005.

4. Nanay Coring was an entrepreneur at the age of 10.

Every year, during the two-month vacation from school, she would take on a “summer job.” They had neighbors who were working in the cigarette factory, and they offered her the job of having to peel off the paper from the cigarettes — two packs for five centavos. “It was a whole warehouse of cigarette packs,” Nanay Coring shares. “And I could not finish that so I hired 10 of my playmates, then I’d pay them.” Her tubo? 2.5 centavos per package.

On another vacation break, she worked at American Sweets wrapping bubble gum, and was even commended by her foreign employer for being one of the fastest bubble gum wrappers. During another two months, she worked as a server in a small restaurant, where a customer actually ordered an extra bottle of milk for her to drink on the spot because she was too skinny. “I was very thin, kasi mahirap lang kami,” Nanay Coring says. She was the second to the youngest among six children.

5. She eloped with husband Jose Ramos when she was 19. Although she wouldn’t advise young people to do the same because times are different now, she says that in her case, “It was the right decision.” 

She vividly remembers being in Avenue Theater watching film footage of the Pearl Harbor bombing during World War II. It was when the Japanese occupied the Philippines that her then-boyfriend said, “Sumama ka na sa akin.” She recalls, “So sinundo ako sa Sta. Cruz, Laguna, at derecho kami kay Judge Almeda Lopez to get married.” Her late husband Jose had a sister who married her older brother Manuel, and Nanay Coring met Jose while working at the Ramos family-owned Goodwill Bookstore. Jose took over one of the branches, which he and Nanay Coring renamed as National Book Store.

On what made her fall in love with him, she fondly says, “Mabait. At masipag.” She shares: “They say love is blind, pero ang pagmamahal, impulse. You cannot impose.”

6. She and her husband had to build and rebuild National Book Store three times. While others would take that as a sign that it might not be the right business to pursue, Nanay Coring insisted on sticking to it: “That’s the only thing I know.”

Nanay Coring went to a public school for elementary and high school. As much as she wanted to go to college (she wanted to take up medicine), her parents had no money to send her to school (both tuition and books were so expensive). When asked if she ever thought of going back to school when she did get to save up enough money, she says, “No more, I was too busy with the business already.” She does believe that education is a person’s most important asset, the key to the future, and the most reliable escape from poverty.

During the early days of National Book Store, she and her husband were everything from manager to cashier to janitor. After building their business selling at a stall, they had to rebuild a second time after the war had left everything in shambles. But of all the hardships she went through in life, the hardest would have to be the third time they had to rebuild, when Typhoon Gene hit and the roof of their barong barong store flew off and everything was soaked. “My arms and feet were numb, yun pala those were signs of having a heart attack,” she recalls. It was firm determination that pushed them to go on, getting a bank loan worth P300,000 back in the 1940s.

It has become her advocacy to sell quality books and supplies at a reasonable price, saying: “Well, because once upon a time, wala din akong pera.”

7. She had a close encounter with Japanese soldiers during the war, and despite the language barrier, they understood each other and the soldiers even gave her a gift.

Nanay Coring recalls being so scared one time when their whole house was surrounded by soldiers. She was thinking of ways to make them leave. “Nakita ko yung isang Hapon na may sword, siguro leader yun, so lumapit ako. Di kami magkaintindihan pero tinuro ko yung mga Hapon. Naintindihan niya ako. Umalis nga sila.” She then cooked bukayo, a traditional Filipino coconut and sugar dessert, and gave it to them. “Tuwang tuwa sila. The next day, binigyan nila ako ng dalawang piyesa ng pranela para daw sa kambal,” she shares. Amidst the war, there were simple acts of kindness. As Nanay asserts, “Actions speak louder than words.” 

8. She prefers reading to watching TV, but if you ask who her favorite actor is, she’ll say it’s John Lloyd Cruz.

Yearly favorite: Every December, Nanay Coring sets up her Christmas belen, complete with lights.

Nanay Coring’s daughter-in-law Tita Virgie Ramos shares that Nanay finds John Lloyd exceptionally good looking and a very good actor. And since Nanay Coring doesn’t like watching her favorites play “the bad guy,” John Lloyd’s choice of roles in both TV and film made her love him more. She also likes the trademark humor of his commercials.

9. Nanay Coring on the youth today:

Biggest change in a good way: “They are more intelligent. That’s my observation with my grandchildren, maybe because they have more access to reading materials now. They are a little bit more aggressive. They don’t fear about getting lugi. If they fail, they stand up again very quickly.”

Best invention the youth use: “Apple. Yung mga ganyan na ginawa ni Steve Jobs.” She says she doesn’t buy gadgets on her own but a lot of people give her. She’s still trying to learn how to use them.

On cell phones: She only uses them to call. She knows what the word “jejemon” means and in one speech, she shared how she got a text that said “CUL8R” and had no idea that it meant she was supposed to see that person later in the day.

Nanay’s four-peso graduation gown: In 1938, 15-year-old Socorro Cancio graduated salutatorian from high school, wearing a gown bought for her by her uncle, Dr. Maximo Lagman. It cost P4 that time, when the minimum wage was 50 centavos.“Kung hindi kay Tiyo Simo, hindi kami kakain ng walong araw, kung kami ang bumili nito.”

. With all her accomplishments in life, at the end of the day, she feels her biggest achievement is “having good children and good families.”

“I can disappear anytime,” she shares. “But if your children know how to let the business go on, and you know they have good values, then you’re happy.” When asked how it feels that her children’s children’s children now enjoy a comfortable life, opposite of her life as a child, she says, “I thank God for giving me all this after so much hardship, and I just pray na maging mabait sila.”

On the best advice she can give young people:

1) “You have to have firm determination to succeed.”

2) “Be humble, even if you are successful, don’t act as if kung sino ka.”

3) “Be industrious.”

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One of the most recent and most inspiring awards that Nanay Coring received was the MVP Grand Bossing Award for 2011. She was hailed as the big winner, besting 12 other Bossing awardees, chosen from among 200 nominees. I was told that during the awards night, in the middle of the program as others received their awards, she noticed her name wasn’t being called. She turned to her companions and shyly commented, “Sigurado ba kayo kasama ako dito?” Despite literally having gone from rags to riches, Nanay Coring has remained so humble. Of course, for the finale of the MVP Bossing Awards Night, when her name was called, everyone gave her a thunderous standing ovation. In her speech, she shared that there really is no secret to succeeding in life, and that if there is one, it would probably be the worst-kept secret ever. “Everybody knows it. Ask any entrepreneur and they will almost always tell you the same thing. Sipag at tiyaga.”

She has no secret to her success, lasting love, or good health. Nanay Coring is 88 years of living proof that clichés like “Work hard,” “Follow your heart” and “Enjoy what you do” are not just clichés, they are truly the keys to living everyone’s dream: a happy and successful life.

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