What a steal!

Yesterday I bought 2 pairs of really nice flip-flops at the Greenhills tiangge, one pair for P150 (brown Havaiana dead ringers but without the brand on the strap, which I find tacky anyway), and another pair for P140 (blue imitations of Nike flip-flops I've been lusting after since June). The genuine articles would have set me back more than a thousand bucks a pair, so I was practically cackling with glee as I purchased the knock-offs.

Also, I almost bought an export-overrun American Eagle warm-up jacket, a bargain at P500, but I balked and decided to just go back in a week to see if the price would have gone down to P450 or even P400. Yep, I am a cheap bastard.

Buying fake branded goods makes me a tad guilty, seeing as how my own family is in retail, and we'd have a problem if people started selling counterfeit products of our brands. In fact, we've already found fake Arrow shirts in several tiangges (one of my students was thoughtful enough to tip me off once about a certain stall in Greenhills-- thanks, Franke!). We aren't rejoicing over it, and it riles me that others are profiting illegally from our brand, but we have to be realistic: there's not much we can do about it (you don't see Abercrombie & Fitch or Von Dutch going on tiangge raid rampages, do you?). Besides, my dad reasons out, it's a compliment to be copied, because it means that Arrow has become worth imitating. :p

So I don't know if buying fake stuff from tiangges makes me a hypocrite, but I do know it sure makes me a very happy shopper... with 2 new pairs of cute flip-flops that look like a thousand bucks.