Not to mention, the Philippine Dutyfree Shop situated at the NAIA (Ninoy Aguino Intl Airport) is now financially broke because of imported goods not sold. Why?

>Doug,
>
>>>No wonder why our fellow filipinos in the U.S.A prefers buying personal belongings here and bring it there: t-shirts, short, pants, etc.
>>
>>I'm curious.. What is the long name for 'PHP'? I presume it's your version of the dollar? What is the exchange rate?
>>
>>T-shirts sell for around (or used to anyway) US$1.87 here in the states. The huge markup comes from two reasons 1) The market will bear it and 2) the expenses of the distribution chain, including the mega-stores.
>>
>>If you know where to go you can get 1st quality t-shirts & polo shirts for just 2-3 dollars US. We used to purchase 9oz Steadman sweatshirts for about 5-6.00 US wholesale.
>
>Todate, 1 dollar = 52 PHP Philippine Peso - there is a Mexican Peso anyway. Before, Hongkong is the shopping center of Asia. Today, that's no longer the reality since 1997's economic slowdown. Lots of quality personal belongings here are now cheaper than Hongkong and Singapore considering that the price tag I mentioned was based on local department stores. That's the reason why dutyfree shops somewhere in Subic and Clark Air base (formerly U.S. bases) are no longer that stronger than local department stores. The only advantage of which (dutyfree): there are items not yet available locally. It's the effect of the weaker peso against US$. Exportation is becoming strong as contrary to weak Importation.