Last week I went to the grocery market to shop for the goods that we are going to take to the typhoon victims of Typhoon Pablo. Me and my niece wanted to buy lots of water in a bottles of different sizes and also lots of crackers. In the store if you just get a few cans of the crackers or a few bottled water you can get it from the shelf. Well, since we wanted to get cases of crackers and bottled water we had to go to the customer service area and order from there.
Well, I didn’t realize how many people were there ordering. Most of them were for their sari-sari store (little store). There were orders of a few hundreds in every items. with so many people so it took us a long time to just get what we wanted. But it’s okay, we were there waiting patiently for our turn. It took probably like 20 minutes before we could talk to the sales person there. So when he entertained us, he saw what we wrote on the paper of how many pieces of bottled water and how many cans of crackers would we want. He then called up the sales person of the said product that we want. Those sales person were there immediately when called up. So we talked to them. Both don’t have the product in hand the quantity that we want. They told us that they could get the next morning since we ordered the products late in the day. So I told them it will be okay, but I want the product early the next morning. So they told me to be at the store first thing when they open and pay it and they could give it to me right away. I also asked the manager of the customer service if the product could be delivered at our house. They said no charge since its way over the amount of Php10,000 that I will be spending there.
I even told them that you guys should give me good discount since we are bringing that to the typhoon victims. The manager of the customer service just said we just are allowed to give 1% discount. I just laughed to that. 1% big deal, I told her. Nothing she can do about it , I guess. Just our stores here just not a relief friendly kind of thing. Oh well, at least they will have the products that I wanted to get. To be honest we stayed at that customer service for over an hour. Just going through the sales person and them calling the warehouse. Really at the end me and my niece were exhausted. But, it’s okay we will do it for the victims of Pablo.
Really while waiting there I’ve also met some people that were also buying for the typhoon victims. Most of them were connected to an organizations here. I was happy seeing them buying for the typhoon victims. Happy to see one organization buying plenty sacks of rice and boxes of sardines and odong (like pasta to mix in with the sardines). Others were buying already packed ready to eat food, just like sardines type food and mix that with rice. Then some were buying something to make spaghetti, she said she will pack them and distribute there same day. Really I was so happy seeing people care with other people.
We also bought lots clothing at the ukay-ukay place. I asked the owner to give me a good discount which he did. Me and my niece were really digging in for good clothes for the people there. We bought for men, women and kids. Really we dug in mostly shorts and shirts. At least they can really use it.
When this article is posted we have already given out the stuff. I would like to thank a few people that helped us out on this. You know who you are. You responded to Bob’s post on his Facebook wall. From the bottom of my heart THANK YOU SO MUCH. It really meant so much to those people too. I really appreciate you guys help. God Bless you always.
Mabuhay!
God bless…
Thank you so much Gary.
Happy New Year!
FEYME
WIND DONT STOP FOR NO ONE IT WAS SO SAD TO HEAR WHAT IT DID UP THERE IN THE PHP I ALSO SENT U A SMS TO FIND OUT IF U AND UR FAMLY WAS OK I DONT KNOW IFF U EVER GOT IT BUT I DO PRAY THAT GOD AS LOOKED AFTER U THERE SO HAPPY XMAS TO U AND BOB AND THE FAMLIY AND GOD BLESS U FOR THE NEW YEAR OK…..PETER MARTIN TASSIE
Thank you so much for the nice comment Peterjoy. I really appreciate that very much.
I hope that you and family had a wonderful Christmas. Advance Happy New Year to you too!
God Bless!
Hi Feyma. A big thank you to yourself, Bob, family and LIP friends.
My extended family were not in the worse part of ComVal but stillsuffered strucrtural damage. Luckily the family are safe and sound and that is the important thing. Now the rest of the family need to help to put there life back together, which I have been happy to help with.
Hi Marjorie – Thank you so much for appreciating what we did there.
I’m glad your family were all okay here. Do you have family in Tagum area? Good thing you are there helping them too, they will recover quicker then.
Always good to see you here Marjorie, have a Happy New Year and a bountiful 2013!
Hi Feyma,
I got to tour the affected area this last weekend when I went there to distribute relief goods from our motorcycle group. The damage was unbelievable considering that the area was insulated from the ocean by mountains. I was happy to see many relief agencies passing us as we went from one barangay to the next. The people were thankful for the help that they recieved and the Mayor of Tagum was very helpful to our group.
Hi Tom Ramberg – I’m glad you and your bike group went there too. Thank you for helping there too. I know what you mean, hard to imagined them affected there because the place was insulated with mountain, we had the same thoughts with you when we heard the news of the devastation there. We thought they had little damaged because of the mountains there. But Pablo really got the place totally wrecked.
Same when we went there lots of people or companies or just families went there to give out too. Bob and I were so happy seeing that. A small gift to them goes a long ways. Water was the most asked when we went there. I hope that the most isolated areas will get some help too.
Thank you for stopping here. Happy New Year to you and your family!
Mrs Feyma,
Thanks so much for what Bob, You and your family done for the victims of Pablo. Have a happy holiday season.
Thank you so much PapaDuck. We tried to help out any way we can, even just a little. People there really need some help.
Always good to see you here.
Happy New Year to you and family. Wishing you all the best for the coming year!
Hi Feyma,
You, Bob and your family did a great thing in your humanitarian efforts acquiring the goods and then taking a risk in personally delivering to those in the badly affected areas. I am wondering if it would be worthwhile for future things like this as well as the annual ” LIP Christmas Drive ” if it is possible to find a wholesale distributor so, if the quantities are big enough, you can buy from where the stores buy and at a lower than retail cost ?
Obviously, the major chains like SM, Robinsons, Gaisano etc. have their own warehouse distribution system so it is unlikely you can do much with them but where do the Independent Merchants buy from ? That might be worth looking into and see if you can set something up with those who wholesale to the independents.
Thanks for posting the pics and video from the effort you and your family made in the ” LIP Relief Effort “. I am happy to have been able to play a small part in it.
Hi Bob – Thank you so much for seeing our efforts there. Thank you also for helping us out. You’re always there to extend a hand. Always a big thank you to you. You are also helping out big time in Iligan.
Not easy to get a distributor here to give discount, if just getting products from them a few times a year. I will tell you though, in the States product distributor always ready to extend hand especially if theirs hurricane or fire or whatever when theirs calamity, here if you ask the distributor it will take forever to get an answer. They will just give you a small percent for a discount. Not worth to wait.
Always nice seeing you here. Advance Happy New Year to you and your family. Wishing you all the best and bountiful year ahead for you!