How Socorro Ramos built a life of books, grit, and Philippine retail

Her story is one of thrift, timing, and quiet persistence that shaped how generations of Filipinos learn and read.

Socorro “Nanay Coring” Ramos turned a small wartime stall into the Philippines’ largest bookstore chain through stubborn thrift, quick thinking, and a clear focus on customers. Now 102, she remains the quiet matriarch of both her family and the country’s bookselling industry—a living link to a business that has survived war, fire, typhoons, and shifting retail eras.

The business began more than 80 years ago, in 1942, when Ramos and her husband José Ramos opened a modest shop selling books and school supplies. After the violence of World War II destroyed their first store, they rebuilt and kept going, slowly expanding into what became National Book Store (NBS).   

Ramos grew up learning retail early, helping at her parents’ store and then working at a bookseller before the Ramoses struck out on their own. During the Japanese occupation, they hid American books and sold basic goods to survive. Their shop was later burned during the Battle of Manila and again damaged by a typhoon in 1948, but each setback pushed them to rebuild bigger and smarter.

Those early years taught a practical lesson that shaped the company: stock what students and offices need, keep prices reasonable, and treat customers like family.

A lifetime horror of credit

Her aversion to credit began in childhood. After watching her grandmother’s small stall in Laguna collapse because customers failed to pay their debts, Ramos said she developed “a lifetime horror of credit,” a principle she carried into NBS’s early years.

Even as a child, she hustled. One story often retold in family circles is how she earned five centavos peeling paper off old cigarettes for reuse. She later hired neighborhood kids to do the work so she could finish faster, a small but telling glimpse of her early instinct for delegation and efficiency.

Expansion came as postwar education and retail boomed. The Ramos children joined the business and helped open branches across the country. Over decades, NBS added stationery, office supplies, greeting cards and publishing (Anvil) to diversify income.

A big turning point

The greeting card business, in particular, became a turning point. Ramos commissioned photographers to create uniquely Filipino cards, with landmarks, cultural motifs, and traditional attire. Their success paved the way for a landmark meeting with Hallmark’s Bob Fraser, whom she famously intercepted at the airport to secure a pitch. That bold move led to National Book Store becoming Hallmark’s Philippine licensee, a partnership that helped fuel the chain’s nationwide expansion.

By the 2010s, the company had grown into a national chain with hundreds of branches (they have more than 200 locations today) and a presence in malls and neighborhoods alike, proof that a neighborhood shop can scale when management focuses on core demand and adapts to changing retail formats.

Ramos is less about a flashy strategy and more about steady discipline. She is known for frugality—one oft-repeated detail is the tiny initial capital and how she and José reinvested every peso into inventory and a second location. That practical approach, combined with an insistence on being where students and teachers shop, turned NBS into an everyday brand. Her leadership style has been described as hands-on and plainspoken, treating the store as an extension of home.

An icon beyond words

Ramos’ legacy goes beyond retail scale. She helped normalize reading and school readiness for generations by making learning materials widely available and affordable. The company also created jobs and grew related businesses such as publishing, distribution, and mall retailing that multiplied its economic footprint. For these contributions she has been honored in business profiles and civic awards, and in 2023 received widespread recognition as she marked her 100th birthday.

When asked what shaped her discipline, she said in a Go Negosyo interview: “I know the feelings of people who don’t have that much money, so you adjust to that kind of feeling so you can help them. It’s also happiness when you are able to help.”

On building something lasting, she added, “It takes time to build something. [National Bookstore] was just a simple sari-sari store.”

In recent years Ramos has been more of an elder statesperson for the brand than a day-to-day operator. Today, her family runs the company she helped build. Yet the  business continues to modernize, with new store formats, e-commerce, and digital payments, which are now part of the company’s playbook.

At 102, Ramos may no longer be running the day-to-day, but her influence is impossible to miss. National Book Store stands where it is today because she refused to quit, and that spirit continues to guide the brand—and the millions of Filipinos who look up to her.

With reports from Kenneth M. del Rosario

 

 

At 102, Socorro “Nanay Coring” Ramos remains the steady matriarch behind National Book Store, a company she rebuilt through war, fire, and shifting retail eras. 

 

 

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