Going to National Bookstore: Hitting the nostalgic feels

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So after my morning walk with the dogs from Ampon Alaga I was just in time for the mall opening and I remembered I needed to get a mechanical pen for one of the projects that I am working on.

Usually for paints, markers, and other hobby stuff, I get online as I would buy several items at once but since this is a single item and it would take several days to be delivered if I don't pay for extra same day shipping as lately the usual 2-3 days delivery has become a week.

Good thing there is a National Bookstore that is still open. For more context National Bookstore or NBS for short is National Bookstore Inc. which had been running since the 1930's but was formally established as a company in 1942.

It had the lion's share of the market in terms of books and school/office supplies as one of the earliest memories of kids as they start to go to school. Every May, before the school season starts, you and your mom troop to NBS as you buy the pencils, ballpens, art supplies and even bags. The smell of those paper products and the feel of the plastic covers that you will use to wrap your notebooks and books.

You need books, you of course went to NBS. It supplied the educational book needs of an entire generation as they start from Elementary all up to College and even post graduate courses like medicine, law and others.

It also carried books to be enjoyed. Every topic imaginable from Filipino Literature to New York bestsellers. It had photo and travel books, cookbooks and at one point even comics and manga.

I got into reading and this where I would buy my books. It still had at that point little chairs and sofas to encourage people to pick up a book and read. I remember being able to read several books without buying it, just spending the time and remembering what page I was if I can't finish it in one sitting.

So it was sad news to me when I heard that one of its original stores in Greenbelt 1 (one of the malls in Manila) was closing last December. It was just a perfect storm of so many factors as brick-and-mortar shops like NBS had problems during the pandemic as a lot of schools and offices made the transition online, then the Online shopping market just exploded and ate up a lot of their market share as people opted to order supplies and books online and have it delivered.

NBS did establish an online presence and tried to shift to the e-commerce model as well while still maintaining their physical store but everyone could see the writing on the wall as the stores become smaller and smaller and some had even closed.

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Just take this branch in Powerplant Mall in Makati. I remember it being in the 2nd floor and was massive. It even had this huge comic book and manga section in the middle that showed the latest publication and even limited release series.

It also where I bought all my Wheel of Time and Game of Thrones books as it generally had a good book selection.

The art supplies section here carried everything from paints, markers, pencils and paper crafts. It had the a massive glue section as there were several rows on glue alone.

I saw it through the years becoming smaller and smaller as sections got removed. One of the first things was the comic book section, the book section become so limited that I had no choice but to switch to Fully Booked, a competitor, for new books. It didn't help that it had a great cafe next to it that was also ran by Fully Booked. Coffee, cakes or soup and sandwiches, and Books was such a great combination and I often had dates there.

Then it was closed for renovation and was eventually moved to its present-day location in the basement with it almost 1/8th the size of it before. The book section is now 3 shelves. Majority of the stuff they carry is more of school and office supplies. The glue section is half a shelf together with tapes.

It was such a hit in the nostalgia seeing such a big part of my memory being a shadow of its former self and I wonder how could it have better made decisions that made it remain competitive in today's market. At this rate we might see it go the way of the likes of other companies that operated for decades but eventually faded away.

If you went to National Bookstore what were your memories?



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27 comments
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Jan din ako dati bumibili ng gamit minsan nung nag SHS kapag arts ang usapan. Mahilig kasi ako mag design ng mga notes 🤣

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yeah maraming art stuff ang NBS which is good kung creative ka and want to do something to jazz up yun mga items and notes mo.

sadly kahit dito lumiit na yun options ni NBS they have less art stuff na rin

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I remember NBS in SM Manila and Rob Place Manila used to be the official meeting place for eyeballs back in the day when textmates used to be a thing. I now buy my and my daughter's books (if not online) from Booksale, some titles I find in Fully Booked. Actually napag iiwanan ang NBS when it comes to innovation but still, nostalgic talaga yan. I still find myself feeling the nostalgia of the smell of new books, new notebooks, plastic envelopes, amd so much more kapag nasa loob ng store. Haha

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which is sad na they were not able to innovate and really got left behind.

My gosh SM Manila and Rob Place Manila NBS dyan din ako nakikipag kita hahahahaha

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Sa dinami dami ng lugar bakit sa NBS pa? 🤣 In our place too NBS is used as a landmark if you're meeting someone (not necessarily textmates or strangers) but only outside NBS. I think maybe cos it's so easy to find? lol

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Nasa bungad lang kasi ng mall kadalasan ang mga NBS. Umabot sa point sa SM Manila na may tumatayong guard sa harap ng NBS at ang tanging job nya lang is paalisin ang mga nakatambay sa harap. Haha

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Ah you mean sa labas pala, iniimagine ko sa loob ng NBS mismo hahaha

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shipping as lately the usual 2-3 days delivery has become a week.

Feeling ko Shopee ito.

Re the NBS experience, back then since di naman tayo pinanganak ng meyemen I don't have in my younger years pero nung nag start na ako mag work NBS has been one of the place where I buy my materials din from paintbrushes, pens and watercolors. I love how quiet the place is.

Book reading wise, di ko masyado feel ang mga libro sa NBS dito sa Laguna most of the books that are marketted ay yung mga NewnYorks Best o kaya naman ay Wattpadd stuff.

I have some coding books din na nabili pero ngayon di na talaga me nag da drop by for my books kasi download at print nalang ang galawan haha copyrights infringement.

Dito din me nabili ng ballpen na pang maarte. Pilot G-tec .3mm pag nalaglag mo goodbye na.

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One of my memories was during highschool my mom accompanied me in NBS to have my first Parker Pen and had my name engraved. I don't know why it was a big deal with her but it was important to her that I got that pen. I carried it all the way to college but somehow lost it.

YUn mga pens, coloring materials and art stuff talaga yun nagdala kay NBS and made it so memorable.

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ohhh my big deal yang Parker Pen Mav! I do remember a pamahiin na kapag binigyan ka nyan with engravings and all magiging successful ka in life tapos yan daw ang gagamitin mo pampirma ng mga checke na iiisue mo to other people!

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ahahha yeah yun nga eh pampirma ng mga cheques and other legal documents.

So I lost my pen back in college is that why I am not successful in life hahahahaha untitled.gif

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HHAHAHHAHAHA samedt bakit ganun. Ako di nabilhan nyang pen na yan kaya din di tayo umunlad at yumaman.

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Dati din akung loyal customer ng NBS pero sadly halos lahat ng NBS store dito sa amin ay nagsara..huhu..nalugi ata sila😂😅

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which is sad dba that their business is failing when it was a core memory of a lot of people like us who were loyal customers.

The Pandemic was the nail that sealed the deal,

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Wow it's good to see buhay pa pala yung National Book Store lol. I've been living in the remote town in my province so I haven't seen any National Book Store for the past 20 years lol. I'm happy to see that their business is still alive and kicking despite the rising popularity of E-Books

I know that the National Book Store not only sells books but also a lot of school supplies but I still feel that their niche is their wonderful books. I use to buy a lot of novels there along time ago by a Filipina with a surname of Ledesma. Sorry I forgot the name but if I ever find those novel books again I'll share it. I'm a guy but I love reading novels way way way back and I love the stories made by her especially because of the HOT details lol.

Anyways do they still sell books bro? just curious... Hopefully they still do and I hope they still will in the future because honestly books will get more and more expensive because of the E-Books which means less publications making it a rare commodity. Honestly I don't like reading online that much that is also the reason why I rarely interact with people in hive coz I prefer reading books than blogs. I am trying my best though but my eyes can't handle too much screen time sadly 😅

Man I miss my National Book Store days coz I always find pretty girls looking for novels and me so yeah. Lucky I'm not shy 🤣 GOAAAAAAAALLLLL! lol

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Yeah they still sell some books but its so limited and often old stuff.

I still love the smell and feel of paper books but have also been comfortable in using E-books. At one point I even bought a Kindle but honestly nothing beats seeing physical copies of your books all lined up/

Lol same I would also check what pretty girls look at and at times would try to shoot my shot especially if its a book that seems interesting. Often would end in coffee and more talks about books. I've met a number of exes by hanging out in bookstores.

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Haha!!! Natawa naman ako sa diskarte niyo ni @pinkhub. Ang kulit!

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🤣🤣🤣🤣 mas natawa ako sa reaction mo mami romeskie lol 😂😂😂

Wag kana mag taka kasi ganyan talaga kami mga lalaki, it's girls before interests/hobbies 😂 diba @maverickinvictus 😏

I agree with you bro, I also love the smell of paper books. I do read stuff online as well but since my eyesight deteriorated to the point that I can only probably last 10 minutes in screen time before I get headaches or maybe even get sleepy. I even stopped reading manga as well because of this. I'm sure something is wrong with my eyes and I probably need to see an Ophthalmologist but I am afraid to know what's causing this and also the fees involved 😥 been suffering like this for probably 5 years now lol

honestly nothing beats seeing physical copies of your books all lined up

Right on the money bro, when I get loads of cash I'll probably make a mini library for my eyes pleasure 😍

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ahahhaa why not both. Pede Girls and hobbies. Pero honestly its a turn on as akin when I learn a woman reads especially if it books or genres that I like because its one more topic we can talk about hahaha.

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Last na punta ko ng NBS para bumili ng school supplies para sa junakis ko, budol din talaga ang NBS minsa kahit di naman yun ang sadya mo mapapabili ka padin hahaha

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ahahahaha true yun bibili lang ng illustration board para sa project ay nabudol na ng ibang art stuff hahahha

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(Edited)

So sad that we don't have NBS in my place hehehe. I'm living in a province and we don't have SM😁. I can visit NBS only if we will go to Davao city. Nabubudol ako pg nkpasok dyan at kahit wla sa plano napapabili hahaha.

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I'm the little girl peeking on How To Draw Manga 😩🤣. I do not have money before, gosh. So just window reading na lang. I also go to the birthday cards and randomly read greetings. It was a fleeting moment ahh NBS~ 🥺

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It still had at that point little chairs and sofas to encourage people to pick up a book and read.

So cool. I didn't know you can just do that. I used to go to NBS whenever I'm in Makati because they have HUGE selections of art materials, something we can't buy back in Davao. I would always get mesmerized by the amount of materials they have haha and I'm not sure if it was indeed Glorietta 1 or SM Makati but damn they have 2 floors of just NBS. xD

I also order my stuff online now since they have most of the things there but I still go to NBS whenever I want to buy pens or sticky notes rather than the department stores.

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I love buying different varieties of ballpen there...So name it and i have it! Masaya na ako kapag marami ako ballpen.

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