09/10/2022
Flat Maria was born from a post-Christmas day trip to Liliw in 2017. The idea to resell Liliw-made espadrilles and flats came from our excited shopping around its many neighborhood shops. Some samples, a survey and a business plan later, we officially launched in February 2018. Online shops, a consignment at Makati Shangri-la and a stint at Curate followed. It was a literal mom-and-pop enterprise, with me managing marketing and social media while my husband took care of operations -- permits, taxes, logistics. When the pandemic hit and business ground to a halt, we hoped for the best and continued. But an impending move to Laguna at the end of this year made us decide on shutting the business down. We stopped replenishing stocks and hoped for a natural end. However, that end came all too quickly on Sept. 28, when my husband passed unexpectedly. With that, and our move, I could no longer sustain the shop. This past week, I packed and delivered the last of our remaining stocks and will work on winding down all the legalities this coming days.
Thank you for being part of our story, for ordering our products, trying our new styles, being kind and understanding through logistics issues, for being loyal and enthusiastic customers. These past 4 years have exciting and taught us a lot. I am so grateful.
Flat Maria, signing out.
