for millions of people in the philippines, shopping means a trip to the neighborhood store. just a short stroll away, these tiny retailers are known as

sari-sari stores. it means variety. many of the store rs run from the side of the owner's house. they are usually well stocked with every day items. snacks, instant noodles, vegetables and detergents. many neighborhoods in the philippines do not have a supermarket, which makes the sari-sari stores indispensable for nearby residents. there are more than 8,000 stores operating across the own tri. this is to account for 40% of all retail sales in the philippines. hoping to capitalize on that large footprint, a project is underway to link sari-sari into networks rather like con venn yens stores. this is the man behind the initiative.

his mission is to teach management and business know how to the shop owners. he launched his program in 2007. >> and if you connected and made the network out of all the small stores, they could be as big or even bigger than the large supermarket. >> seven years later, more and more sahry stary stores across the philippines are displaying the logo. at last count, 4,000 stores had joined the network. those that have been in the program for some time are starting to expand. many have seen sales revenue increase dramatically. in this episode of asia insight, we follow the grass roots revolution that is sweeping through sari-sari stores across the philippines.

quezon city sits on the outskirts of manila. marita runs this sari-sari store. she opened it 25 years ago to help support her family. her husband repairs electronic applianc appliances, but only has work on average, three days a week. most sari-sari stores are owned by women. working close to home allows the owners to keep on top of household chores. sari-sari stores sell their

products in very small units. customers can buy detergent for one wash, singing sweets and seasons sold by white. this allows people to buy just enough to get by. marita buys most of her stock from the supermarket, a 15-minute walk from her home. a pack of cigarettes from the market works out to 2.75 pesos or about six cents. she sells them alone for four pesos each or nine cents. that's more expensive than at a supermarket, but she's not short of customers. many people in this neighborhood work as day laborers on

construction projects. some days, there's no pay, so they rely on sari-sari stores. they buy just what they need even if it works out to be more expensive than other supermarkets. on a typical day, marita's store gets 50 customers. 100 on busy days. despite this, she said she makes little profit. another customer arrives.

she says around one in ten of her customers purchase on credit and that it's impossible for her to refuse them. she keeps nothing but a mental record of the ious. she lets the customers pay her later with nothing more than a verbal agreement. it's a common practice at sari-sari stores. despite the informal nature of these operations, the owners must file for permission with the authorities to set up a

sari-sari store. some fail to register their stores, making it difficult to keep accurate statistics and they often go out of business. this woman tells a common story. she opened a store in 2008. it closed after just three years. when she failed to make any profit. in many cases, storekeepers cannot collect payment from the customers. they run out of cash. and can't keep stock. many women open a sari-sari store without any knowledge of how to run a business. this is the main office of microventures.

microventures is a social enterprise. it teaches business know how to women who run sahrri-sari store. it has also teamed up with a bank to provide small loans for store owners. mark ruiz runs the organization. mark was born into an affluent family. his father was an engineer and his mother worked in a bank. he studied at a pristy jous private university and while learning, discovered the concept of helping people through social entrepreneurship. after graduating, he worked as a sales man for a large u.s. appliance maker. the job took him to sari-sari stores around the philippines. that's when he realized their

potential. >> there are so many of these very small stores and if you connect them and made the network out of all the small stores, they could be as big or even bigger than the large supermarket. that's where i'm really coming from. i mean, i taught a business course then worked for company, so my orientation is business, but i guess what i really want to do differently is that it's a business that helps people. >> in 2007, mark left the company and found ed microventures. he named the organization the happen hapinoy program by combining the word, happy, with pinoy, which means filipino in -- over the past seven years,

the program moved into ten different provinces and worked with 4,000 stores. the staff traveled around the country to teach retailing skills to local store owners, including those on the island of ladi, southeast of manila. classes have been held here since may 2014. around 100 sari-sari store owners have gathered at the local church. they come from five different villages. today's teacher is held, a, a staff member at microventures. she's been running this program for six months. many of the shop owners have a large amount of outstanding credit. the trainers teach them that allows credit to build up is bad for business. she uses illustrations to keep

her audience engaged. store owners worry they'll lose customers if they refuse credit. the people of microventures have a solution. they advice the owners to work out credit limits and deadlines and monitor them carefully. the instructor teaches the students how to keep proper daily accounts.

course members are given accounting journals created by the program. they are encouraged to keep track of eight types of shop data, including sales revenue, credit offered and money spent on stock. each time they attend a class, the shopkeepers bring their journals to confirm how much profit they're earning. this village in tacloban is home to around 2500 people. 24 sari-sari stores here are taking part in the training.

the program chooses a leader for each village. vilma is one of the leaders. her husband died of an illness ten years ago. she lives with her daughter, who's a university student. she says the program showed her how to organize her purchasing strategy. she's perched her shelves with products that don't sell and focuses on daily essentials. detergent is one of the products she added to her lineup. she's practicing methodical method which includes keeping an up to date journal. this has helped her double her revenue to about $6.60 a day.

today, helda takes her on a field trip. they're visiting a store run by another project member. evelyn has been taking part in the program for six months now, but her daily revenue is still only 100 pesos. firstly, helda takes a look at her journal to see if she can find any problems. evelyn grew tired of keeping records and has only been writing down the daily profit.

helda examines her accounting records.

helda then checks the product portfolio. the first thing she finds is tooth paste powder. evelyn takes helda's advice. she'll stock more every day items and have a higher turnover. evelyn has six children. her husband is a day laborer at construction sites. he rarely gets to work more than two or three days a week.

evelyn opened the store 12 years ago to earn some extra income. but it's not making any profit and the family barely has enough to eat. the following day, vilma invites evelyn to come with her on her buying run. they travel to a village market eight kilometers away. vilma buys her stock from this market every week. she says she'll teach evelyn where to purchase cheap stock. this oil is at the supermarket

price. next stop is a vegetable market. vilma suggests evelyn start selling fresh produce. there are no vegetable stores close to vilma's shop, so demand for this should be high. by the time they've finished, evelyn has spent 1,000 pesos at the market. back in her shop, evelyn dif vis up the oil for sale in small units.

all of the vegetables she bought have sold out. today, evelyn has made a profit of 100 pesos. she only opened for three hours, but earned as much as she formally does in a full day. so pleased, she's recording it in her journal. the village of pury is 100

kilometers south of manila. the program started off in the village five years ago with 14 sari-sari stores taking part. one of the stores seems to be doing particularly well. belen jimenez runs the store. she's the program leader in the village. the program motivateded her to expand her business. she borrowed 10,000 pesos through microventures to expand the store's crawl space. she began stocking rice, bread and other daily essentials, boosting her product lineup to more than 200 different items.

the credit very carefully. vilma immediately records the money owed in her journal. she sets a credit limit for 60 pesos and a deadline for payment. the program inspired her to revamp her business. her daily profit now runs more than 500 pesos, up six fold, and she paid back her entire loan three years ago. at about that time, belen starting making stock purchases

on behalf of other store owners. about 30 neighboring sari-sari stores are making use of her services. the owners text in their orders when they need restocking. she bought a motorbike for collecting stock. she and her husband ride to a neighboring village ten kilometers away. the village has a wholesale shop. she visits the shop three times a week and buys around 5,000 pesos worth of goods each time. she's buying in bulk for 30

stores so she can negotiate a good price. here, juice that sells for ten pesos retail can be had for eight pesos. that allows stores with a joint purchases program to sell goods for around the same price at the supermarket. belen then spends half a day delivering the stock to members of the cop rative. she takes 10% of the product price as commission for the delivery. store owner norah used to travel to the neighboring town to make her purchases. she had to make supply runs three times a week. since outsourcing short of belen, she's been able to earn a steady income.

mic microventures has also partnered with companies to develop new services. one example is electronic money transfers using mobile devices. the service got up and running in 2012 in partnership with the philippine's largest communication company. so far, around 100 stores have introduced the money transfer service. belen's sore is one of them. the system converts cash into electronic money, using a phone

or other emotional device. it allows people to send and receive cash easily through the network of sahr y sri-sari stor. the customer is charged a commission of around 5%. this is split between the sending store, the receiving store and the telecommunications company. many filipinos work away from home and send money back to their family and other relatives, but one-third of all towns and villages have no bank. that's creating strong demand for the money transfer service. more than 30 people visit belen's store for that purpose every day.

work is understoway to expand t service. the next step will be to help people pay their electricity bills and other utilities. recently, the program teamed up with pharmaceutical companies, making it possible to purchase over the counter medicines at sari-sari stores. store owners are required to undergo training by the pharmacist's association. more than 3,000 stores across the philippines now sell over the counter medicines. this one is located in an impoverished area. it began selling pharmaceuticals two years ago. the store sells about 50 different medicines that don't require a prescription. many people are too poor to visit the doctor. the store can sell the medicine by the tablet.

sari-sari stores are undergoing a transformation. these changes are helping traditional neighborhood retailers join the modern world of business. these shop owners are forming networks that could one day span the length and breadth of the philippines. >> hello.

>> garrison keillor: maxine kumin lives on a farm in new hampshire where she breeds arabian and quarter horses, writing poetry, four novels, more than 20 children's books. she says, "i don't want to write poems that aren't necessary.

i want to write poems that matter." >> this is a little one called after love. afterward, the compromise. bodies resume their boundaries. these legs, for instance, mine. your arms take you back in. spoons of our fingers, lips admit their ownership. the bedding yawns, a door blows aimlessly ajar and overhead, a plane singsongs coming down. nothing is changed, except there was a moment when the wolf, the mongering wolf who stands outside the self lay lightly down, and slept. ( applause ) thank you.

hello there. welcome to "newsline." it's thursday, january 8th. i'm catherine kobayashi in tokyo. a group of armed men has stormed a newspaper office in paris, killing at least 12 people. they're still on the loose. president francois hollande has raised the terror alert in the french capital to the highest level. the masked men were carrying automatic rifles. they stormed the office of the "charlie hebdo" weekly newspaper and shot people who were at an editorial meeting. many victims were journalists, including the paper's editor and cartoonists.