The Story of National Bookstore

National Bookstore is one of the most recognizable brands in the Philippines. The story of how it all started is an inspiring rags to riches tale. Soccoro Ramos, or Nanay Coring, as she’s more commonly known as, was at one point peeling the paper off of old  cigarettes so that they can be reused in making fresh cigarette sticks and she was making around 5 cents per pack of cigarettes. Not to mention that National Bookstore was already around during World War 2 when the Japanese were here.

What's even more mind blowing is that at that point because due to censorship during the Japanese occupation, books weren’t really the wisest thing to sell, and so the story of how Soccoro Ramos, it’s the story of how she navigated this period by selling anything that the Japanese soldiers needed is pretty amazing.

Learn about the complete history of National Bookstore in this video

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What you'll learn in this video

• What life was like for the young Soccoro Cancio
• Soccoro Ramons' love story
• How Soccoro Ramos ended up working at a bookstore
• Why Soccoro Ramos decided to open National Bookstore
• National Bookstore during World War 2
• Why National Bookstore was selling liquor during World War 2
• How National Bookstore grew so fast
• The Hallmark deal - the deal that triggered National Bookstore's explosive growth
• The other companies and brands that National Bookstore owns
• What's next for National Bookstore

_{Learn more about brands in the Philippines}

My name is Chris - and I talk about brands in the Philippines. Subscribe to my YouTube channel for more videos.

You can also listen to this story on the podcast.

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