what's a papemelroti?

We're often asked what papemelroti means. papemelroti_girl.GIF (2199 bytes)

It is actually the combination of the first syllables of five names - Patsy, Peggy, Meldy, Robert, and Tina. They are the children of Benny and Corit Alejandro, who started the papemelroti business. Papemelroti is a specialty shop which carries a wide variety of gifts and decorative accessories. Papemelroti’s history began in November, 1968, when Benny and Corit opened a small the first papemelroti gift shop along Tomas Morato Ave. (Manila, Philippines). Korben Gifts, as it was called, started out as a hobby, with Corit making stuffed toys and doll’s dresses and Benny supervising the furniture making.

Even before that, Corit was already sewing dresses for her daughters, making stuffed toys from cloth scraps, and play food from felt for her children to play with. Benny’s hobby at korben was woodworking and he made furniture for their home, and a playhouse from a wooden crate for the children. Soon their children were making their own paper dolls, decorating box dollhouses with clippings from old catalogs, drawing and doing other crafts. From this background, it was natural for the children to help out in the family business, starting with painting figurines, and hammering wooden plaques to give them a distinctive "antique" look.

In 1976, the family planned to open a new shop in Ali Mall, Cubao. Since Korben came from a combination of Corit’s & Benny’s names, it became a family joke to name the new shop after the 5 Alejandro siblings - Patsy, Peggy, Meldy, Robert and Tina. When they couldn’t think of a better name, they finally decided to give the shop the tongue twister name - papemelroti. From the start, when that first shop opened during the summer vacation, all five siblings helped out in the business.

Today, papemelroti has evolved into a chain of gift shops that has touched countless lives through it’s unique product lines. Patsy, Peggy, Meldy, Robert and Tina continue to design products for papemelroti. They aim to design products that help encourage, uplift, and inspire as well as bring warmth and beauty to homes. Their products reflect values and themes which are important to their family - a commitment to and love of God, family, home, country and the environment. Through years of designing, manufacturing and retailing, papemelroti has become a popular name in the Philippines’ gift and decorative accessories industry.

store For more details of papemelroti's story in Patsy's own words, click here. To read up on the news articles written about Papemelroti, click here.