Chapter 4

RESULTS

In this chapter, the informational and inspiring experiences of the informants

of the study which were gathered through in-depth interviews and a focus group

discussion are presented. With the following research questions, data production from

the participants was directed:

1. What are the financial challenges faced by small scale-retailers with the

presence of big players?

2. How did they cope with the financial challenges faced by the business?

This chapter is composed of four parts. First is all about the composition of our data

that has been assembled though our interview. Second part is all about the themes of

our study, how it is being classified with the help of our data analyst. Third part deals

about the answers we gathered in the in-depth interviews and focused group

discussion under each research problems. And lastly, part four includes the outline of

responses from the different informants.

Participants

Key Informants. There were eight (8) key informants in the study, five (5)

gents and three (3) ladies who are managers or the owners of their business. The

participants were given pseudonyms in order to preserve confidentiality and privacy

presented in Table 1.

Focus Group. A focused-group discussion was conducted with eight (8)

participants who were also the managers or owners of their business. Four (4) of them
are men and the other four (4) are women. The discussion was held to achieve more

learning and to develop social construction among the participants on this study. This

is also to extract the common denominator among them experiencing the phenomenon

which would help us determine the essential themes for this research. To make their

identity obscure, the participants were also given pseudonyms which were presented

in Table 1.

The key informants and the participants in the FGD answered the same set of

interview questions. Through recommendations and personal visit to their place, we

were able to get in touch with them and invited them for an interview for our studies

which then were accepted. We did get satisfying and informational answers we

needed from the interaction we made with the participants. We were able to know

what their financial challenges were when the Big Players arrived.

Categorization of Data

After the gathering of data in the in-depth and focused group discussion, data that has

been saved in our voice recorder were directly transcribed and those answers that was

delivered in a vernacular manner has been carefully translated into english and is also

analyzed.

Table 1

Assumed Years in
Gender Location Age Study Group
Name the field

Nabunturan,
Athena Female 23 1 In-depth Interview
Comval
 Nabunturan,
Ron Male 19 1 In-depth Interview
Comval

Nabunturan,
Newt Male 18 1 In-depth Interview
Comval

Nabunturan,
Maki Male 18 .7 In-depth Interview
Comval

Nabunturan,
Aji 3 Female 18 .9 In-depth Interview
Comval

Nabunturan,
Margareth Female 20 .5 In-depth Interview
Comval

Nabunturan,
Spongebob Male 19 1 In-depth Interview
Comval

Nabunturan,
Focus Group
Harry Male 22 1
Comval Discussion

Nabunturan, Focus Group

Hermione Female 21 .6
Comval Discussion

Nabunturan, Focus Group

Spiderman Male 24 1
Comval Discussion

Nabunturan, Focus Group

Percy Male 19 .5
Comval Discussion

Nabunturan, Focus Group

Annabeth Female 19 .9
Comval Discussion

Nabunturan, Focus Group

Thomas Male 20 1
Comval Discussion
 Nabunturan, Focus Group
Grover Male 23 1
Comval Discussion

Nabunturan, Focus Group

Adeline Female
Comval Discussion

Nabunturan, Focus Group

Veronica Female
Comval Discussion

1. What are the financial challenges faced by small scale-retailers with the presence of

big players?

During our in-depth interviews and focused group discussion, questions were asked to

our participants in able for us to get wide ranging answers for the above research

problem.

And through the data we gathered from the experiences of our participants we came

up into four themes as presented in Table 2 such as Decreased on Sales and Profit,

Sustainability of Income, Incapacitation to Compensate and Market Price.

Decreased on Sales and Profit

One of the major problems faced by our participants is decreased on sales and profit;

sales on the majority of the busineses were decreasing since the arrival of these giant

competitors. Businesses sold less than their normal earnings, since their sales have

been decreasing and sometimes it directly affect their profit. They tend to have a

lower profit compared to.their profit without these giants as competitors.

(Ambot kinsay nag ingon ani), tells us how their sales hase been greatly affected by

this big players.

Bisaya Version:

(It gave us a negative impact because as they arrive, our sales are slowly decreasing,

especially people get easily attracted to what is new.)

(Si tampolana), shared her experiences on how the problem greatly affect them.

bisayan version:

(There are no other problems than the decline of our sales. We sold less than normal

but we are earning enough to cover the expenses and other liabilities. There are no

major problems than can crash the business.)

Uban pang core ideas.

Sustainability of Income

A sustainable income is required in order for a business to meet all the expenses that

the entity may face.It means that the entity can sustain its future needs.But

unsustainable income can greatly affect a business it can lead to a negative

circumstances. It means that the entity has a problem on how to cover up those future

expenses.

Si kuan reveals their problem in terms of sustainability of income.

bisaya version :

(We were worried about where to find finances to sustain the business since the

expenses were just the samw but our sales decru. The problem here is where we

would be able to find money to pay those.

Gwapa siya shared how unsustainable they are.

Bisaya:
(We worry about the expenses, the wages of the employees but when we extend our

store hours till late night, we can stilk catch up.

Si kuan secretly told us on how incapable they are to cover up their expenses.

bisaya:

(The payment for the loan did not cane from the business,it's from something else.

Our sales are not sufficient to cover the debts and expenses.

Incapacitation to Compensate

Bisaya:

(We came to the point that we can say that it is hard because our profit had lessen. We

did not reach our target sales.

Bisaya:

Sometimes, we can say that our assets are not enough for the liabilities we owe

because of the decreased sales. And in buying stocks,we sometimes pay more than

what we earned.

Bisaya:

(Since the arrival of the Big Players until now. We keep on adjusting because before

we gain more but now it is lesser.

Bisaya:
(Until now since they came. We are the hardest to recover because before,we are

known to many as expensive retailer.

Bisaya:

Nothing really. We are just depending on what the store could carry. We came to a

point that we can say that it is hard because our profit had lessened. We did not reach

our target sales.

Market Price

Market Price is the price when can an asset or commodities can be sold.Because of

this giant competitors business people tend to lower their prices to gain sales from the

customer.Because of this it has a greater chance that their sales would be lower to

what we they have before because their products are cheaper to what it should be.

Aside from the cheap price, retailers around the town offered big discounts in almost

of their products to earn a profit.

Bisaya

(We give discount depending on what kind of product they buy.)

Bisaya

( We give trade discounts, bigger than before.

Bisaya:

We give discounts to gain customers.

Table 2. Financial Challenges Faced by Small Scale Retailers with the Presence of

Big Retailers.

Themes Statements
 Decreased on Sales  It gave us a negative impact because as they arrive, our
and Profit sales are slowly decreasing, especially people get
easily attracted to what is new.
 Negative, a bit, because our sales decrease due to some
of our customers would prefer to buy from them than
us.
 Our sales decrease for more or less than half.
 Our sales went down when they arrived. It took
months. It’s not that the sales will decreased
immediately and up until now, it still affects us.
 It had a negative impact because our sales had
decreased since they came.
 Our sales, indeed, decreased. Of course, with the
existence of Mall Y and Mall X- our competitors, our
sales would eventually go down, slowly.
 There is a decrease. Decreasing, really. In reality, we
cannot say that there is an increase since you already
have competitors.
 Our sales decrease, as expected since we already have
a strong competitor. Actually, it decreased but not to
the point where our business is totally down.
 Since our sales decreased, our profit also did.
 There’s no other problem than the decline of our sales.
We sold less than normal but we are earning enough to
cover the expenses and other liabilities. There are no
major problems than can crash the business.
 Sustainability of  Yes. It did have a negative impact. It affected us much.
Income Of course, people would prefer to go there because of
the convenience in buying, like their place is air
conditioned.
 Well, we do have big competitors now and we’ve
taken some negative effects from them. Though we
have a bigger business than others, because this is
owned by a known company, but our location is not
that accessible to the people, compared to the malls.
Our business performance declined, overall.
 Due to fewer customers, our sales also declined. But it
was just a nominal decline, not the kind that can
severely affect the business.
 We were worried about where to find finances to
sustain the business since the expenses were just the
same but our sales decreased. The problem here is
where we would be able to find money to pay those.
  We worry about the expenses, the wages of the
employees but when we extend our store hours till late
night, we can still catch up.
 The payment for the loan did not came from the
business, it’s from something else. Our sales is not
sufficient to cover the debts and expenses.

 Incapacitation to  We came to a point that we can say that it is hard

Compensate because our profit had lessened. We did not reach our
target sales.
 Sometimes, we can say that our assets are not enough
for the liabilities we owe because of the decreased
sales. And in buying stocks, we sometimes pay more
than what we earned.
 It took 2 years to recover since they arrived
 Since they arrived up until now, we are still recovering.
 Until now. We cannot cope up that big, not like before.
 Since the arrival of the Big Players until now. We keep
on adjusting because before we gain more but now it is
lesser.
 We are recovering slowly and it’s hard to bring back
the past.
 Up until now but at least it’s not that bad anymore.
 Until now since they came. We are the hardest to
recover because before, we are known to many as
expensive retailer.
 Nothing really. We are just depending on what the
store could carry. We came to a point that we can say
that it is hard because our profit had lessened. We did
not reach our target sales.

 Market Price  We give discount depending on what kind of product
they buy.
 We give trade discounts, bigger than before.
 We give discounts to gain customers

2. How did they cope with the financial challenges faced by the business?

These questions were asked to the participants during the in-depth interview and

focused group discussion for us to find out the coping strategies that were used by the

informants to face the challenges.

From the data that we collected using the above questions we came up into four

essential themes as shown in Table 3. These are Marketing Strategy,Friendly

Approach to Customers or Sales Talk, Cut Down Expenses and Financing.

Marketing Strategy

Marketing Strategy is a must in the business, the organization should be able to find

the best way or approaches that can lead to the customer to be their solid customers.

Businesses must be able to find ways and techniques for them to sustain their

business.

Of course, our price is lesser compare to them

Because we are wholesalers, of course we offer our products at a lower price
Our products also are cheap, our suppliers come here personally since they
observed that we are best sellers.
We also lower down our prices for the basic necessities.
Our strategy is we encourage our customers to purchase in our store because we
offer lesser price than the malls..
Our price here is set very low just to attract customers. We would mark up only a
centavo, a peso or two. We still survived despite the expenses.
Maybe their primary reason of buying here is our cheaper cooking oil, salt, sugar,
flour or anything for cooking. Several would buy soap here. Most of the most
common items they buy are some basic necessities.
We offer lower prices compared to the malls for the customers to buy from us.
We have several items here which are not available in the malls. That’s why wise
consumers would rather choose the cheaper ones than those expensive ones.
But even if they don’t have to buy something, they’ll still enter the mall to be able
to ride elevators. We also have wholesale, we still have customers. Their mind-
set is that they can buy at a cheaper price compared on the products they see in
malls.
Then some companies would give discount
A personal contact with the proprietor would enable them to avail discount. In the
malls? Can they ask for discount? Even 1 centavo, they can’t. So that is one of
our advantages.
We did some discounting, smaller than usual deals. Especially those that can be
found in the department store.
Well, if they’ll ask for a discount, they can have one.
We offer big discounts then at the ground floor, we displays our discounted items
just to attract customers.
All customers, whether they’ll ask for a discount or not, we give discount
automatically. Sometimes, we are the ones to ask them if they would avail
discount.
Our way to attract customers is to give discounts for them to always come back
to us.
Sale or discounts are our major way to attract customers. Also we offer great
deals on seasonal products such as school supplies on June and Christmas
 decorations on December. Our establishment is very spacious for those who
don’t want cramped stores.
And that is one reason we can have our sales because we have direct contact
with the buyers.
Observing on what people really need, and make prices cheaper. Some needs in
school like what they needed during programs, like white socks or gloves in
bundle. We are updated with the people’s needs.
We are observing on what our customer really need which are not grocery items.
We had several ways because we thought we would go bankrupt. That’s why we
set promos like in bundles, soap and shampoo for example
We promote our products through “buy 1 take 1”
We enter into contracts with schools. We visit them personally to ask what they
need, we let them borrow for payment, then give them the receipt and we’ll just
wait for the cheque from DepEd.
We give patronage refund, credit lines for our members and at the end of every
year, since we have lending, so we declare dividends that’s why our members
would receive much from investing in our coop. that is our edge compared to
them (malls).
When we talk of grocery, we don’t have any advantage to them, malls. So some
of our inventories were transferred to the other branch where it is more saleable.
What we focused on now is our school suppliers and the pharmacy. We also
added hardware because we think it much demanded especially on construction
materials.
We have decided to focus not to the grocery, but to the pharmacy, school
supplies and hardware, instead.
In our business, we ride on what is trending in the new generation to make the

business stable and can still

Friendly Approach to Customers or Sales Talk.

In the business world your customer is the most important person you need to care.

Without them you cannot earned a profit,so, we must able to serve them with proper

care and approach them in a friendly manner,maintaining a good relationship with

them is good for your business

And of course, we maintain our relationship with our suki.

And we have a nice relationship with the customers.
Give importance to our customers.
We maintain our relationship with our customers, with the schools.
Customer loyalty and how we take good care of our customers.
We have lots of suki, even though some transferred, there are still more who
remained because they trust us
Our customers. We have suki since we operate for almost 50 years already. They
are our long-term suki
We just sales talk, fooling them just to make them buy, even a needle.
.
Cut Down Expenses

An expense is needed in the business but too much expense is not a good indicator of

proper management. For the participants cutting down expenses is one way to

stabilize their business.

We lessen our expenses. If it’s nothing-important thing or expenses, we get rid of

it.
We slowly cut down expenses.
We have lessened the expenses and did adjustments so that it will not exceed
the income.
The not-so-important expenses are being cut off.
The sales decreased but not to the extent that it will go bankrupt. This land and
building are theirs, so less expense.
We cut down numbers of employees.

Financing

Financing means fund that is added to your investments. Financial institutions such as

banks, credit unions and financing company lend money to help other people

especially business people in able for them to have money to sustain their respective

business with a promise that they will pay them in the future. Some participants lend

money to sustain their own businesses.

We always add capital. Especially when your stocks are not yet sold and new
ones arrive. Of course, we have to add.
We had loan for additional capital
When they arrived, we are the ones most affected since our store was
demolished because it is where the Mall Y should be built, and because of that,
our capital was aided by loan. We bought this place because if we will just rent, it
would cost much. Our stocks is fine since other companies allow as days to cope
The one we loan for additional capital, we did not put it all on one side of the
business. We divided it into the grocery, school supplies and pharmacy to
develop. And eventually we were able to put up hardware.
We tried loan for additional capital. More stocks, more complete and maybe our
consumers would remain.
To be honest, because the owners are Chinese, they borrow-pay and lends

money to their co-Chinese. If it weren’t for them, our business would go down.

So, they borrow then pay, borrow then pay. So, they then joint forces to help their

co-Chinese.
 Themes Statements
A. Marketing Strategy  Of course, our price is lesser compare to them
 Because we are wholesalers, of course we offer our
products at a lower price
 Our products also are cheap, our suppliers come here
personally since they observed that we are best
sellers.
 We also lower down our prices for the basic
necessities.
 Our strategy is we encourage our customers to
purchase in our store because we offer lesser price
than the malls..
 Our price here is set very low just to attract customers.
We would mark up only a centavo, a peso or two. We
still survived despite the expenses.
 Maybe their primary reason of buying here is our
cheaper cooking oil, salt, sugar, flour or anything for
cooking. Several would buy soap here. Most of the
most common items they buy are some basic
necessities.
 We offer lower prices compared to the malls for the
customers to buy from us.
 We have several items here which are not available in
the malls. That’s why wise consumers would rather
choose the cheaper ones than those expensive ones.
But even if they don’t have to buy something, they’ll
still enter the mall to be able to ride elevators. We also
have wholesale, we still have customers. Their mind-
set is that they can buy at a cheaper price compared
on the products they see in malls.
 Then some companies would give discount
 A personal contact with the proprietor would enable
them to avail discount. In the malls? Can they ask for
discount? Even 1 centavo, they can’t. So that is one of
our advantages.
 We did some discounting, smaller than usual deals.
Especially those that can be found in the department
store.
 Well, if they’ll ask for a discount, they can have one.
 We offer big discounts then at the ground floor, we
displays our discounted items just to attract customers.
 All customers, whether they’ll ask for a discount or not,
 we give discount automatically. Sometimes, we are the
ones to ask them if they would avail discount.
 Our way to attract customers is to give discounts for
them to always come back to us.
 Sale or discounts are our major way to attract
customers. Also we offer great deals on seasonal
products such as school supplies on June and
Christmas decorations on December. Our
establishment is very spacious for those who don’t
want cramped stores.
 And that is one reason we can have our sales because
we have direct contact with the buyers.
 Observing on what people really need, and make
prices cheaper. Some needs in school like what they
needed during programs, like white socks or gloves in
bundle. We are updated with the people’s needs.
 We are observing on what our customer really need
which are not grocery items.
 We had several ways because we thought we would
go bankrupt. That’s why we set promos like in bundles,
soap and shampoo for example
 We promote our products through “buy 1 take 1”
 We enter into contracts with schools. We visit them
personally to ask what they need, we let them borrow
for payment, then give them the receipt and we’ll just
wait for the cheque from DepEd.
 We give patronage refund, credit lines for our
members and at the end of every year, since we have
lending, so we declare dividends that’s why our
members would receive much from investing in our
coop. that is our edge compared to them (malls).
 When we talk of grocery, we don’t have any advantage
to them, malls. So some of our inventories were
transferred to the other branch where it is more
saleable. What we focused on now is our school
suppliers and the pharmacy. We also added hardware
because we think it much demanded especially on
construction materials.
 We have decided to focus not to the grocery, but to the
pharmacy, school supplies and hardware, instead.
 In our business, we ride on what is trending in the new
generation to make the business stable and can still
catch up with malls.
B. Friendly Approach  And of course, we maintain our relationship with our
to Customers of suki.
Sales Talk  And we have a nice relationship with the customers.
 Give importance to our customers.
 We maintain our relationship with our customers, with
the schools.
 Customer loyalty and how we take good care of our
customers.
 We have lots of suki, even though some transferred,
there are still more who remained because they trust
 us
 Our customers. We have suki since we operate for
almost 50 years already. They are our long-term suki
 We just sales talk, fooling them just to make them buy,
even a needle.

C. Cut Down  We lessen our expenses. If it’s nothing-important thing

Expenses or expenses, we get rid of it.
 We slowly cut down expenses.
 We have lessened the expenses and did adjustments
so that it will not exceed the income.
 The not-so-important expenses are being cut off.
 The sales decreased but not to the extent that it will go
bankrupt. This land and building are theirs, so less
expense.
 We cut down numbers of employees.
D. Financing  We always add capital. Especially when your stocks
are not yet sold and new ones arrive. Of course, we
have to add.
 We had loan for additional capital
 When they arrived, we are the ones most affected
since our store was demolished because it is where
the Mall Y should be built, and because of that, our
capital was aided by loan. We bought this place
because if we will just rent, it would cost much. Our
stocks is fine since other companies allow as days to
cope
 The one we loan for additional capital, we did not put it
all on one side of the business. We divided it into the
grocery, school supplies and pharmacy to develop.
And eventually we were able to put up hardware.
 We tried loan for additional capital. More stocks, more
complete and maybe our consumers would remain.
 To be honest, because the owners are Chinese, they
borrow-pay and lends money to their co-Chinese. If it
weren’t for them, our business would go down. So,
they borrow then pay, borrow then pay. So, they then
joint forces to he lp their co-Chinese.