Elvira Zamora, 53, entertains a customer on Sunday, October 29, in Cebu City. | CDN File photo by Niña Mae Oliverio
CEBU CITY, Philippines — Candle and flower vendors here are preparing to have more customers in the following days for the All Souls Day and All Saints Day this year.
There are over 50 stalls that are set up in front of a university in P. Lopez Street in Cebu City from October 28 to November 1, and it is open for 24 hours.
Merlina Alcoseba, 52-year-old candle vendor, told CDN Digital on Sunday, October 29, that they would be expecting to have more buyers by October 31 and November 1.
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Waiting for Kalag-Kalag for sales to pickup
Alcoseba said that it would be too early for customers to buy candles on Sunday and Monday because there is still an upcoming Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan Elections tomorrow, October 30, Monday.
“Hinay pa jud ron kay election ugma. Manguli ang mga tawo. Syempre mobalik ang mga tawo mga [October] 31 na gyud na,” Alcoseba said.
(Sales are slow now because of the election tomorrow. The people went home. Of course, they will likely return [on October] 31.)
Compared to last year, Alcoseba said that their business was slow because the candle vendors and flower vendors were in separate locations.
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Candles and flowers sold side by side
Now that the flower vendors are selling alongside them in the same location, it can be a good opportunity to gather more customers.
The prices of her candles remain the same from last year, and it is also the same price during the ordinary days.
The customers can buy candles in glass from P50 to P150, depending on their sizes, while ordinary candles cost P25 to P75 per pack.
Like Alcoseba, Elvira Zamora, 53-year-old flower vendor, is also expecting to have more customers by Tuesday and Wednesday.
She sells flowers like roses at P180 per dozen, while on ordinary days it costs P100 per dozen.
Zamora said that the increase of price was needed because she had to buy fertilizers for the flowers to have its full bloom for the Kalag-Kalag.
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However, she also sells flowers designed in what they called “baskets” from P250 to P600 each, depending on the size.
But the flowers in these baskets come from wholesalers.
“Ang rosas ray ako,” she said.
(Only the roses are mine.)
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Will prices increase or drop?
For now, Zamora said that she could not tell if there would be a price increase by October 31 and November 1 because she had to observe the number of customers who would visit the stalls.
“Tan-awn sa namo ang sitwasyon kung halin ba. Kung muhalin gani, patas-an namo ang price. Momingaw gani, mo-down gyud mi [sa price]. Di man ka pwede mo pataas kay ang uban namaligya og barato,” Zamora said.
(We will observe the situation if demand would go up. If the demand would go up, then we will increase the price. If the demand is low, then we have to lower our prices. We cannot increase our prices because the others are selling their flowers at lower prices.)
“Taas-taas pa man sad ang adlaw kay naa pa may three days. So amo lang nang gi agad-agad ang panahon,” she added.
(Our time to sell these flowers is longer because we still have three days. So we just observe how things go.)