The Story Behind the Kim Store Raid

Since we got our information from several sources, we’re going to write this in a Q&A format to be more concise and have better clarity (we’re not including inconsistent accounts from different sources).

Update: The Bureau of Customs contacted us and shared their mission report. Read it here 56.

#1. Is it really the Kim of Kim Store that we know?

Yes, we can now confirm that it’s the same multi-awarded (PLDT #BeTheBoss Awardee, Go Negosyo Awardee) Kim of Kim Store whose building has been raided by the Bureau of Customs last Monday.

#2. So who is Francis which the BOC alleges as the owner of Kim Store?

Francis is the operations manager (incidentally, Kim’s second name is also Frances, hence the prior confusion). Francis is the right-hand man who’s been with the company for a very long time. He is said to have started out as a messenger, then promoted to sales and then operations manager after many years of loyal service.

#3. What’s that warehouse that was raided?

Kim built a 5-storey building in the Tondo area to serve as her store/warehouse as well as residence (1st floor: garage, 2nd floor: reception, 3rd floor: warehouse, 4th, and 5th floor: residence). This made it easier to monitor the activities since everything is just in one place. This is based on original news reported by GMA.

#4. What was the raid about?

Alleged illegal importation. Kim Store has been consistently publicly stating on their Facebook page that they’re importing gadgets. That opens the possibility that some of these gadgets never went thru proper customs procedure and might not have NTC stickers in them.

By the fact that the BOC managed to secure the area, padlocked it and placed guards meant the raid yielded something.

#5. How did it happen?

According to a source, a BOC agent allegedly came in on a Monday morning (around 8am) and pretended to be a customer and was buying around 5 gadgets. After being shown the units, the agent inspected and saw there were no NTC stickers in them.

This part of the story is consistent with the reports in GMA News: “The staff manning Kim Store’s depot failed to present documents for the imported items, the bureau noted.”

This is when the buyer identified himself as a BOC agent and demanded to talk to the manager/owner. The operations manager, Francis, negotiated with the BOC agent who allegedly demanded some payment to settle the issue right there and then. This incident was escalated to Kim who instructed that they should get their lawyer first. When Kim lawyered up, the BOC agent was forced to call in the cavalry and by 12 noon of the same day, more agents came and raided the place.

This is consistent with the news report that the BOC could not identify the real owner (because if they planned this raid thoroughly, the only needed a little research to figure it out).

The reception and warehouse were all closed down and padlocked. An estimated Php20USD 0.34INR 29EUR 0.32CNY 2 to Php30USD 0.51INR 43EUR 0.49CNY 4 million worth of gadgets were found in the warehouse. Their stores in Eton and BlueBay were not affected, though (another indication that this was a rushed job).

There are still people manning the SMS line and Facebook Page that sends out canned responses to customer inquiries {we got a sample response here earlier}.

#6. So what’s next?

We don’t know, really, but it could be any one of possible scenarios — (1) Charges would be filed for illegal importation and all affected seized units will be hauled out by the BOC from the warehouse or (2) Kim would settle the problem the old-fashioned way. Who knows, this could be just a misunderstanding. That’s just our theory but there’s also that matter about alleged extortion that should be looked into (KimStore could really be the victim here).

KimStore has not made any public statement admitting nor denying this allegation (except for the “we’re under renovation and system maintenance” messages) so we really don’t know their real position at the moment. Perhaps, they were hoping that this could still be ironed out peacefully/quietly and return to normal as if it never happened.

We will know when KimStore will become operational next week (hopefully). Do let us know when this happens.

{sources: GMANews, Rappler, KimStore Customer Support}