Christmas gift ideas: Find beautiful gift items from social enterprises

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Christmas gift ideas? Shop for Christmas Gifts with Purpose  at the BPI Sinag ng Pasko Christmas Bazaar on December 6 at the Glorietta Activity Center, Glorietta Mall, Makati City.

I love to give Christmas gifts that are locally crafted by small and medium scale enterprises. There is a lot of heart in it. If you are like me, you find beautiful gift items from social enterprises that help Filipino communities at the BPI Sinag ng Pasko Christmas Bazaar happening on December 6, 2016 at the Glorietta Activity Center, Glorietta Mall, Makati City.

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Many of these social enterprises have been part of BPI Foundation’s iconic BPI Sinag Business Challenge, a program that aims to support and scale-up businesses with the triple bottom line – people, planet, and profit. The Sinag ng Pasko Christmas bazaar, which is now on its second year, is one of the opportunities organized by BPI Foundation to help social enterprises reach out to new market.

With a wide range of goodies that include food and beverage, toys, personal care an home products, fashion and tech accessories, you will be sure to find something to give the important people in your life.

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Here is a list of social enterprises participating at the BPI Sinag ng Pasko Christmas Bazaar.

Food and Beverage

  1. Balangay’s Best – seafood snacks and other food items made by fisher folk communities from Bantayan, Cebu
  2. Bayani Brew – brewed iced teas made from all-natural, native ingredients — curiously yummy, ridiculously healthy, and proudly homegrown
  3. Dalareich Chocolates – native chocolate solids made from pure roasted cacao from Bohol
  4. First Harvest – a proudly-Filipino brand, that uses choice ingredients to whip up healthy and delicious food products such as peanut butters and coco jam
  5. GoldenducK – premium salted eggs that use an all natural turmeric dye to give their salted duck eggs a bright yellow hue, instead of the carcinogenic Sudan red dye used in others, and uses 50% less salt than traditional salted duck eggs. They also make duck patties and sisig
  6. Good Food Co. – brings fresh and ethically sourced organic produce from smallholder farmers to kitchens
  7. Hiraya Chocolates – single-origin chocolate bars and chocolate products from cacao beans sourced around the Philippines
  8. Kalsada Coffee – Philippine specialty coffee that aims to support Filipino coffee producers and their dedicated efforts to bring quality coffee to market.
  9. Kayumanggi Organics – wild ginger teas sourced from local farmers from Surigao del Sur and Aurora.
  10. KKK Coffee – coffee products and café that seeks to promote Philippine coffee, not only from bean origins, but also to recipes and to brand
  11. Nutri Delight Delicacies – innovative nutritious delicacies from all over the Philippines
  12. Obrano – hand stitched goods made from genuine leather and handwoven textiles
  13. Saka Brew – premium roasted rice and corn coffee
  14. STEEP Coffee – coffee blends without the need for anything more than boiling water
  15. Theo and Philo – chocolate bars made from cacao from Davao and sugar from Bacolod.
  16. Tsaa Laya – premium line of organic herbal teas

Toys and Games

  1. Karaw Craftventures – a design hub that upcycles scrap materials into artisanal products made by the inmates of the Naga City jail
  2. Plush and Play – safe, environmentally-friendly and educational toys
  3. Civil Defense Board Game – a simulation table top board game that introduces the basics of disaster risk reduction and humanitarian action to players with or without any background in disaster risk reduction or humanitarian work.

Bags

  1. Akaba – timeless, high quality and high value travel bags from handwoven textiles
  2. Bag 943 – for every purchase made of these backpacks, another bag is given to an impoverished school kid in the Philippines
  3. Gouache – stylish specialty waxed canvas bags for the active, artistic urbanites and the adventure lovers
  4. Gugu Bags – backpacks for adventurers, woven in Albay and Camarines Sur, and designed and sewn in Naga City by Filipino artisans
  5. Jacinto and Lirio – multi-functional, handcrafted, and stylish leather goods such as wallets, bags, journals, and laptop sleeves, sustainably made from water hyacinth

Clothes, Shoes, and Accessories

  1. Anthill Fabric Gallery – scarves, jackets, skirts, and other contemporary lifestyle products made from Philippine weaves
  2. Habi Footwear – environment-friendly, stylish and comfortable espadrilles and sandals
  3. Klowil – t’nalak woven by the T’boli weavers of South Cotabato
  4. La Herminia Weaving – handwoven cloth from indigenous fibers like piña, silk, abaca, and cotton
  5. Risque Designs – a Filipino lifestyle brand that brings forth modernity and luxury with its meticulously hand-crafted ready-to-wear and ready-for-runway footwear pieces

Personal Care and Home Products

  1. Messy Bessy – natural, biodegradable, non-toxic personal care and home products
  2. MNL Grow Kits – “agriculture in a box” products that lets you grow your own plants from the comfort of your home
  3. Solar Solutions – provider of renewable energy solutions products and services

Assorted Products

  1. Angie’s Yakan Cloth – handwoven yakan cloth, table runners, wall decors, coasters, placemats,pillow cases, bags
  2. Caritas Margins – a variety of fashion accessories, personal care, and food products made by Caritas Manila’s urban poor farmers
  3. Gifts and Graces – fair-trade bags, toys, and accessories
  4. GREAT Women – food items and spices, textiles and silk-based goods, and high-fashion jewelry and accessories
  5. Roots Katipunan – woven bags and artisanal products

Support our Filipino Artisans! Save the Date! December 6, 2016 at the Glorietta Activity Center, Glorietta Mall, Makati City.

Learn more about the BPI Sinag ng Pasko Christmas Bazaar by following BPI Foundation on Facebook .

Poor business to assume someone can’t afford what you are selling

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Oprah Winfrey says she recently became a victim of racism “when a shop assistant in Switzerland refused to show her a £24,477 handbag saying it would be “too expensive” for her.”

When Winfrey insisted again, the woman replied: “No, no you don’t want to see that one, you want to see this one because that one will cost too much. You will not be able to afford that.”

One can only feel like a victim when you allow such to happen. Perhaps Oprah felt she was victimized. Whether real or imagined. she is entitled to her feelings of disappointment. The thing is that as a shopper, it is just darn annoying when shop assistants refuse to show you an item you are interested to buy or consider. It has happened to me once in Hongkong. I truly wanted to buy jewelry because I was told it is more affordable in Hongkong. Unfortunately, this shop owner didn’t want to bring it out of the glass case. She just wanted me to examine it from a distance. My first thought was “does she think I will steal it?” No, I didn’t think so because she bolted the door. Then I thought , perhaps she thinks I just want to look and not buy. It is a risk that shops need to take. I could have been a sale but her snobby attitude was just a turn-off. I left. She was just glad to show me the door. What a snob.

What is the use of putting an item on display? If shop owners don’t want it to be touched, then just hide it or put a sign “For display only. Not to be handled.” . Shops should have brand new stock in the inventory since potential customers will want to hold or feel the item.

Too bad, the shop may have a lost a sale. “Wouldn’t it be nice if the only thing salespeople focused on in stores is providing good service and the green of your money?”
Lesson learned.

Perhaps, shop owners should re-think their snobbish or “(insert here)” attitude . They can learn a thing or two from Robert Scoble.

“In Silicon Valley I learned a different lesson: always treat people in t-shirts, worn jeans, and flip flops like billionaires. To many of my competitors those people looked poor and not worth taking the time to deal with.

“When I worked at a consumer electronics store in the 1980s that’s just what I did and time after time I won sales that my competitors lost because they assumed those people were poor. I remember one guy who parked his supercar around the corner when he first came in just to see if he’d get good service without anyone knowing he had big bucks (I later got to drive that car, after winning his confidence, which was a big thrill).

“I don’t understand people who work retail who don’t want to show someone something. What harm is there in letting someone poor touch a $40,000 handbag anyway? Even if they were poor, you are helping them dream and they’ll remember you if they ever are rich.

“Plus, everyone knows someone poor, even the hyper rich. Maybe they influence someone who has the money.

“Racist or not, it’s just poor business to assume someone can’t afford what you are showing.

“I guess that’s why I keep pushing Rackspace Hosting to give free cloud computing to startup entrepreneurs as part of our startup program at http://www.rackspacestartups.com/ . Yeah, many of them won’t be able to afford a lot, but you never know who will start the next YouTube (which was hosted on Rackspace before it sold to Google).”