Santos Sy Store first set up shop in 1951, along present-day Sikatuna Street, and in 1956, moved nearby to a decrepit quonset hut along Rizal Street, the then-singular thoroughfare of the frontier and post-war town of San Jose, Occidental Mindoro. It then offered -- as it does to this day -- a myriad of merchandise, from groceries and household effects, to choice imported items, textiles, ready-
to-wear clothes, school supplies, and other dry goods.Contrary to popular belief, the store's name is not an amalgamation of the family names, "Santos" and "Sy", but was actually the passport name given to Mr. Sy Ling Yong, an intrepid and industrious, true to form native of the Chinese Province of Fujian, who was among the first to migrate and settle in town. And, also contrary to common knowledge, the officially registered name of the store used to be "Esperanza Sy Store", after Santos Sy's beloved Filipina wife of Chinese descent, who was endearingly called "Mama" by family, and "Mama Enciang" by extended relatives, friends, and strangers alike. In 1959, Santos Sy Store transferred to its present location along what is now Bonifacio Street near corner Liboro Street, and in November of 1983, it expanded and became an exclusive dealer of Petron Gasul, officially operating under the trade name, Premiere Gas & Appliances, servicing the LPG needs of the entire southern half of the island of Occidental Mindoro. In August of 1987, the basic structure of the modest, pink-plastered three-story building that can be seen today was completed and rendered serviceable, primarily through the painstaking hopes-turned-efforts of siblings Mrs. Danilo Coden Sy, the second and youngest children, respectively, of the now-deceased spouses Santos and Esperanza Sy. In the meantime, the eldest of the second-generations, Mrs. Virginia Sy-Grapilon, left to establish the lamentably defunct Numero Uno Store, along Rizal Street, incidentally, nearly in front of the old Santos Sy Store site. The third in the brood of four, on the other hand, Dr. Eleanor Sy-Costibolo, an astute pediatrician, started -- and to this day maintains -- a small but welcoming "Children's Clinic", and once, a rambunctious burger stand, right beside the store. Thankfully, Santos Sy Store has remained largely impervious to the ebb and flow of merchants' fortunes, notwithstanding its resistance to change and progress, and its dogged insistence in keeping its time-honored manner of doing business. The store, for one, still operates without a single point-of-sale cash register machine, partly in order to keep the jobs of twenty-something sales and delivery personnel, many of whose friends and relatives have, at one point in time, also worked with the store.Indeed, Santos Sy Store used to be the closest thing to a shopping mall San Jose had. And, to borrow from fellow Chinese, business magnate, Mr. Henry Sy's SM Shoemart, Inc., the distinctive slogan, "[w]e've got it all for you," is precisely the concept upon which Santos Sy Store was founded, and the value or service it endeavors to continue providing to the townsfolk of San Jose, Occidental Mindoro for years to come.Today, Santos Sy Store has been officially renamed "Danilo C. Sy Store", after its current proprietor and long-time manager, familiarly known to many as "Danny" or "Nano". Alongside the store's frontage are Dr. Costibolo's clinic and Rybok's Barber Shop, which is owned by another third-generation, Ms. Miranda Cristina Coden Sy, R.N., and husband Donald Salibio. The store's second floor also functions as a multi-purpose hall and may be rented for various occasions on an hourly basis. Maraming salamat po sa inyong patuloy na pagtangkilik sa Santos Sy Store!
