Thursday, May 17, 2007 DTI reports stable prices of school supplies By Ace Matthew Togonon UP Mass Comm Intern
WITH the start of the school year barely a month away, the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) said prices of school supplies in Cebu City remain stable.
According to DTI-Cebu Provincial Office’s price monitoring report Cebu Provincial Office, the prices of school supplies, especially pad papers, notebooks and pencils, have not changed for the past three months.
“Only brands that have new supplies or those that are new in the market have different prices,” said Zaide Bation, chief of the Trade and Industry Regulation Division of DTI-Cebu.
Competition
They also hope the stiff competition will help bring the prices down.
However, establishments selling school supplies are already bracing for the buying season.
Lourdes Janon, head of the supplies division of National Bookstore SM Branch, said that the buyers have begun arriving right after the elections.
She added that they are already prepared for the market demand and all the stocks they need have already arrived.
She said that except for the new ones, most supplies have the same prices as last year.
Ging-Ging Segundo, 29, a sales clerk of People’s Educational Supply on Sanciangko St., Cebu City, said their establishment is ready for the demand of their customers.
“The number of buyers hasn’t increased yet. Maybe it will in the first week of June when classes open,” she said.
Weekly
DTI monitors the prices of school supplies weekly, starting in April and ending in June, in preparation for the opening of the school season.
Bation said they record the prevailing prices in school supply establishments.
However, the price monitoring does not cover premium brands but only of affordable products, she added.
According to the report, the prices of pad papers for grade schoolers range from P9.50 to P13.50.
Intermediate pads, with brands like Merit and Star cost P26.75 and P28.00, respectively.
Composition notebooks, with 90 pages, cost about P14.75 to P17.50.
Pencils cost P3.50 to P5.50 each.
Wait
Loriben Aguita, 28 and a teacher of the Philippines Christian Gospel School, believes most parents wait until schools give the requirements before buying anything.
Bulacao resident Aida Iwayan, a mother of two high school students, says there is only a slight difference in the prices of school supplies so she sometimes buys earlier and at times, she goes shopping in June.
