Shopping Tips
I proceeded to the other stalls that sold bags and discovered not the bag of my liking but some useful shopping tips. Vendors sell their ware depending on the kind and brands. Backpacks sell for less; the most expensive sells for 200 peso but you could haggle it down to 180 pesos. There are backpacks for 150 pesos, which is the usual selling price. The pricier ones are the shoulder bags, gym bags, mountaineering bags, and mail bags — between 300 and 900 pesos. Bags that could fetch more than a thousand are the ladies bags, especially Louis Vuitton, Lacoste, Prada , and other super-brand originals that are sold between 15,000 and 40,000 a piece in shopping malls.
But even those pricey bags get easily sold here.
Actually, many of the customers who come here are rich,” said Jun dela Cerna, a vendor. “They flock here especially if there are newly opened stocks. They immediately buy those bags that cost more than a thousand, especially if its Louis Vuitton or other popular brands, he said.
Mandigan, the cooperative official, agreed. We have all kinds of people who come here to buy ukay-ukay,” he said. The poor come here as well as the rich. “They know the value of their money, Mandigan said.
And sure enough, I saw seemingly well-off housewives and matrons who scoured the stalls for branded bags. They beamed at the sight of a Chanel or a Prada hanging between countless other bags in the racks. There were also the middle-class housewives and fathers.
In Agdao, security and safety was not a problem. Every now and then, a policeman or traffic enforcer patrolled the various entrances and corners of the ukay-ukay stalls. A public-address system also reminded customers to take care of their belongings.
I feel safer here because theres a police in the premises. Ive shopped here for almost three months now and so far I havent lost anything, said Nellie Yan, a frequent shopper.
Eureka!
Halfway into the afternoon and still without a bag, I decided to ask help from an ukay-ukay vendor. After describing to him what I was looking for in a bag, he grabbed his stick and fished out a couple of them from the highest rack of his stall. They were exactly what I was looking for.
One was a small maroon backpack with a nylon exterior, black straps and adjustable shoulder pads that cost 180 pesos. The other, worth 150 pesos, was a black backpack with metal clasps and accessories and a strap that settles comfortably on the shoulders.
Both bags were good buys but I could not settle on which to bring home. Although, the 150-peso bags brand was not familiar in this brand-conscious country, the vendor showed me that its parts were 100-percent original and that it was as strong as any brand on the market. The maroon bags parts were also 100-percent original.
I examined the bags further and found that both met almost all of my requirements. They were both waterproof, which made my choice harder.
The decision finally came down to the design. Although the black bag was cheaper by 30-pesos, the maroon bag was more appealing and edgier. I asked the vendor if he could lower the maroon bags price to 150 pesos but he declined.
For a student like me, 30 pesos is 30 pesos but I decided to settle on the 180-peso maroon bag. I then happily set off for the clothing racks, which is probably another story. (Angely Pamila Chi/davaotoday.com)
