Mango Moments - Where's All the San Miguel Beer?

A Serious Mango Moment. Waray Beer!

(orig posted 5/13/2016)

Last week my friend and fellow blogger, John, was complaining that he had not seen the San Miguel beer truck in over a week. He doesn't get out much, so I just figured he has simply missed it. When perched in his den at his computer, the only way he would see the truck is if it pulled into his car port! I figured he was paying more attention to watching movies and the NFL Draft than looking for the beer truck. Come to think about it, I hadn't seen the truck that normally comes to our village on regular occasion.

Fast forward one week. Teri drove to town with a case of empty beer bottles and returned home with a case of empty beer bottles. She said the Bodega (warehouse) was out of stock. It's okay though, we would just have to rely on our trusty sari-sari store across the street. It's just a few more pesos per bottle, but that's okay. We will replenish during our next trip to town. Until now, there has always been beer at the sari-sari store, never fail. But the last couple days, nothing. There was not a sari-sari store in the entire village that had any beer! WTH?

San Miguel Grande

If You Fail, Try Again.

So yesterday morning, we went to town and stopped at the San Miguel Bodega with our empties. Again, the old gentleman who always waits on us told us "Waray Grande's" (Waray meaning "nothing" or "none"). He told us to come back after 3pm because the supply truck was coming later. Later that afternoon we came back to town to run a few more errands and I had to shoot some videos for my latest video project anyway. So, we returned to the Bodega, as suggested earlier by our elderly curbside beer hop, and as we drove up, he just threw his hands up and shrugged his shoulders. "Waray" is all he could say. So, I motioned him over to the car and began my interrogation.

Me: "Why no beer today?"

Attendant: "Today and yesterday, no beer."

Me: "What happened to the San Miguel company?"

Attendant: "Out of stock!"

Me: "I'm beginning to see that, but why?"

Attendant: "Too much demand."

Me: "But there is always demand for beer, diba?"

Attendant: "Yes, but now much more demand."

Me: "Why more demand now?"

Attendant: "Many people have election money and now buy more San Miguel to get drunk."

Me: "Ah, election demand."

Attendant: "Yes, election demand. Until the election is over."

Me: "But the election was 3 weeks ago!"

Attendant: "But there is still money left over for drinking."

The beer truck used to come right to my front door!

So, I drove off scratching my head thinking that I will shoot my videos and stop at every sari-sari store if necessary until I find a Grande bottle of San Miguel that my wife and I could enjoy later in the evening. Then I spotted the truck - an unmistakable truck loaded with white and green San Miguel cases of beer. And it was parked alongside the road up ahead of me. And it had many cases of beer onboard! Oh, the Joy this day! I pulled in behind it and immediately unloaded my case of six empty Grande bottles out of the car and handed it to the driver's handler and asked, "Can you sell me beer?" He responded by saying he could only limit sales of 10 cases to each customer. "One will be all I need, thank you." We exchanged the empty case for a full one, I paid the driver, loaded the case into the car and turned around and headed home. But not before getting a couple more videos and stopping in for an icy sno-cone at my friends store in town.

Things Are Starting to Make Sense!

The local road to our village that was under construction/repair prior to the election had come to a screeching halt a month before the election cycle began. I'm thinking that maybe that earmarked road money found its way to the people for their voting allegiance, and now San Miguel Corporation has all that money... except for another friend, Carl, who just purchased a new air conditioning system for his convenience store. "Compliments of election cycle spending" he says as he points to the newly installed unit. "Business has been good lately!"

Road improvements to our village halted!

While pointing to his new air conditioner, my response was "I think that is part of the road to my village hanging on your wall!" It's all speculation of course.

It's More Fun Being Retired in Samar in the Philippines!