Was there ever a time when you desperately needed an item for a particular occasion, but you had no idea where to get said item? Think of the sudden need for a pair of earrings that would complete a party get-up, or a matching pair of shoes with a distinct shade of colour that would have made the day. The department store is usually the go-to place to these things, but it’s a whole haystack to find the needle in, unless you have been in the store several times and the place is already considered to be your shopping turf.
This crisis is normal for any shopper who’s always been nitty-gritty about things. Because details make up the whole, there is just that essential need of completion of a part that would make up everything. Guess what? That place exists, and it has just established itself with various branches in and outside the metro.
Roy & Biv: The Place to Be
Roy & Biv, an “everything” store, has brought into the city a shop that sells pretty much everything. I thought it was just a novelty store of some sort, but lo and behold, it definitely has everything. Sprawling in the metro, specifically in Glorietta, Alabang Town Center, Trinoma, Ayala Terraces Fairview, and Ayala Center Cebu, the shop caters to different customers across generations and amidst varying preferences and lifestyles.
The Story Behind Roy & Biv
What makes Roy & Biv have “everything” is its embrace of the rainbow as its theme, philosophy, and identity. Roy & Biv are made-up characters and symbolisms of the store’s uniqueness and ingenuity to shopping. ROYGBIV, that being the spectrum of colours in the rainbow, was the starting point. Roy and Biv are names that would hold the masculinity and femininity of possible customers, thereby implying that the store caters to any customer. The character “&” symbolically suggests the endless need for items in different colours. Such a smart name does not only attract people, but becomes a household name that has a simple and familiar recall.
More than just a name, it was rather a light-bulb moment for the owners, as well. It was a big realization that people do ask the same question all the time: “do you have this item in this certain color?” That was the main philosophy behind everything. The rainbow and the birth of Roy & Biv became the mode to actualize things.
What is in Roy & Biv?
While most shops categorize their products by type, size, and function, Roy & Biv utilizes colors. Items range from decoratives to household wares, fashion items to personal hygiene products, and from tech accessories to just pretty much anything interesting. It runs its items across 8 main colors: red, orange, yellow, green, aqua, blue, purple, and fuchsia. For the obsessive-compulsive, this is the shop to be for its color organization and item availability. I must say it was such a comfort to stay in the shop for a couple of hours just to take photos because, goodness, it was just a shop of pretty much everything. It simply made my day.
