Socorro Ramos

Philippines, bookselling. Ramos and her husband opened a small shop on Escolta in Manila in the early 1940s, and she built it into National Book Store, the country's dominant bookseller. Her model paired books with school and office supplies, which brought families in every term, and relied on hard bargaining with suppliers to keep prices low. Known as Nanay Coring, she became a symbol of thrifty Filipino retail.