WHAT do expatriated Pinoys miss most about home? Family, yes, but also perhaps, meals accompanied by the salty treat of the tuyo at itlog na pula combo with the tangy addition of bagoong. Or those who played street basketball in their teens may remember fortifying themselves during their Pinoy-style post-game huddle with Pop Cola and Chippy.

The “sari-sari” store, the Philippine version of a one-stop shop, has been pivotal in assuaging the sudden needs of the average Filipino. This especially holds true for our sudden cravings for chips and crackers for merienda to canned goods and instant soups for supper.

So then, why not a sari-sari store in Rome, Italy-based Pinay Norma Macalindong thought. After all, the majority of the 87,000 documented OFWs in Italy reside in the Italian capital, according to 2004 figures culled by the Department of Foreign Affairs.

Stable income source

“It all started when I became president of the Mancini Club [organization of Filipinos working in Piazza Mancini,” recalled Macalindong, now 47. “We would all spend our days selling Filipino food near Piazza Mancini, there under the bridge, everyday.”

It was not long before Macalindong decided to make formal her enterprise. Soon, Norma’s International Food Store broke ground. The business offers the same assortment of goods found in sari-sari stores back home. It was an instant hit. Dried goods and husked rice are among her bestsellers, and not just among Pinoys.

“Surprisingly, we now have more South Americans customers than Filipinos,” she disclosed. “Although, of course, Filipinos patronize what we sell.”

Macalindong decided she had had enough of scrubbing bathroom floors or watching over someone else’s children, which she did when she first started working in Italy. She realized the store would be a more stable source of income and a way to keep life intact for her family back home, specifically her children.

“This is all for my children. I have many [children] so I make even the night a working day just to assure their future,” Macalindong shared. “With the store, I do hope to feed them and also send them to decent schools.”

Seeing her store grow, she decided to turn it into a family business. Her husband is now involved in its operations, as are her seven children who now study in Italy. When they aren’t available to mind the store, Macalindong’s in-law takes over.

Go Negosyo awardee

For establishing her sari-sari store in Rome, Macalindong was singled out as one of the outstanding Overseas Filipino Entrepreneurs by the Philippine Center for Entrepreneurship (PCE). Macalindong received her award from PCE founding trustee Jose Concepcion III and President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

The Go Negosyo Para sa mga OFWs at Balikbayans program is part of the continuing Go Negosyo campaign spearheaded by Concepcion. It aims to develop entrepreneurship in the country and assists in reintegrating OFWs by exposing them to business opportunities.

“It is really an honor to be part of those Filipinos considered as successful business people across the globe,” Macalindong said. “It reassures; much more than your status, (it reinforces) the pride of having succeeded, as a Filipino, a steady life overseas.”

The recognition, however, is simply a nice little icing. “Okay, so there’s an award for my entrepreneurial efforts, but this doesn’t mean that I’d be complacent of my business,” she said.

The family has also started an export business in the Philippines, which is managed by one of Norma’s children. The Las Piñas-based Macalindong Export-Import reduces the expense of acquiring products from importers. It has made three shipments to their own store in Rome but may soon service other Asian shops in the city.

Business birth pains

Although it’s now easy for her store to meet its daily sales quota, Macalindong openly spoke of the hardships on the way to business stability.

“I first continued my studies here for I haven’t finished high school back in the Philippines,” she narrated. “I went on studying terza media, then concorso for Camera di Commercio, for me to be able to open my business. I needed to finish one year and four months of studying to legalize my business because I knew escaping the cops who were after us illegal vendors will do me no good. And of course, shelling out some amount of money was inevitable.”

She also had to deal with envy. Her growing success attracted “negative impulses” like the rumor-mongering of other people. “But thank God I am still here in Piazza Mancini flourishing on what I’ve started,” she said, emphasizing that she established her store independently or without the help of an Italian backer.

“When you’re that passionate in what you’re doing, and you believe that God is by your side, there is just no breaking you down,” she declared.
From selling…

Macalindong said her entrepreneurial bent began when, as a second grader, she would accompany her mother to sell fish.

Her selling skills were evident even after she left her destitute life in the Philippines to work in Italy. During her days-off, she would go to train and tram stations to vend bags. This helped augment her and her husband’s income. Selling soon became the couple’s major means of livelihood.

Fourteen years later, the full-blooded Batangeña’s persistence paid off. She vended in Andrea Doria, a well-known marketplace for migrants in Vatican, then moved to Ponte Millo, and finally found her zone in Piazza Mancini.
…to serving

Macalindong’s success has snowballed into concerns more civic. Egged on by fellow Filipinos and other Italian officials, she plans to step out of her comfort zone for a better cause: service.

“They insisted that I run during the elections,” Macalindong revealed. “They say that I have a great chance of winning.” Especially as she has established good relations with both her countrymen and the people from her adopted country.

Macalindong is eyeing the position of Consiglieri for Municipio 2 of Rome. As a councilor, she will have a consultative function in the Italian Counsel and will be entitled for five years to represent migrants of every nationality residing in the area.

“But win or lose, my business shall continue. It certainly is my life now,” Macalindong concluded.?

by Karlo Jose R. Pineda

Karlo Jose R. Pineda is a journalism graduate of UST. He has written for the Philippine Daily Inquirer, The Philippine Star, and The Big C magazine, which received the 2006 Catholic Mass Media Award for its cancer advocacy.