Mom and Pop

Mom-and-pop operators are giving way to founders with big-money investors and deck-wielding creative directors.

“I identify as pocho and there wasn’t a home for us. It was all either the mom-and-pop shops, or places that were way too modern,” Acosta said during a quiet lull one weekday.

For those in this mom-and-pop economy, which includes older workers pushed into early retirement or others who have been boxed out of the traditional labor market, convenience stores offer the most accessible form of entrepreneurship.

From established chains to mom-and-pop stores and chic restaurants that challenge tired stereotypes, they have all been taking off here before leapfrogging further afield, to elsewhere in South East Asia and then across the world.

“Businesses have already become harder for mom-and-pop stores like us,” she said.