Straight from a paper lover’s heart

I’ve always liked magazines. Hilig ko talaga ‘yon since high school. Then in November 2000, when I was a senior in college, I decided to open a magazine store after my dad and I saw this area in Robinsons Galleria that I thought was perfect for it. It was very near the dining areas, and I figured that people could look at magazines while eating.

My store got its name from the Egyptian word papyrus. I just added vore as in carnivore, so Papyvore means a paper lover or someone who devours paper.

At first, we carried a lot of magazines because we only had a few suppliers. And we didn’t have to cash out because the stocks were on consignment–although now we buy the local magazines directly from the publishers and get the imported titles from a distributor.

I learned a lot of things along the way. For example, I now make it a point to display the local titles in front because they are the more sellable items, and the imported magazines inside because they’re expensive.

I’d observed that people looking for imported titles really went inside, while those going for local magazines bought based on what they saw on the cover. I also learned the importance of a good location in a business like this.

We’re not like National Book Store that people seek out no matter where it is, so all our stalls are near the escalators and eating areas–yung talagang dinadaanan ng tao.

Right now we have 22 branches, all company-owned: 14 in Metro Manila and eight in the nearby provinces. We started with 50 titles, but now we carry about 200 to serve people’s different interests.

We pride ourselves in getting the magazines first: We haggle for the quickest pick-up and delivery times with the publisher because we want our customers to know that if they want something, they’ll have it right away; I even tell my cashiers to know who our regular customers are and what they’re buying so they can reserve copies for them in advance. Our next project is computerizing the transactions in all our stores–so we’ll know if a certain branch is running low on a title and we can replenish their stock right away.

My decision to focus on this business has been fulfilling because, at the end of the day, I know that I’m doing it for myself. But I really owe my success to my parents–they who have been helping me run the outlets and teaching us kids how to be entrepreneurs since we were young.

–Interview by Marjorie Ann R. Duterte

Papyvore

Telephone: (02) 711-4086

Fax: (02) 724-0011

E-mail: [email protected]