BAGUIO CITY – Despite the influx of residents and tourists to the public market here, vendors admitted that they were not able to meet their targeted sales, claiming that consumers have reportedly reduced their expenditures for Christmas since most of them are apparently affected by typhoons “Ondoy” and “Pepeng.”

Victor Calimlim, president of the Baguio Market Vendors Multi-Purpose Cooperative (BAMAPCOM), claimed their sales for this year dropped by as much as 20 percent compared to their sales for the same period during the previous year even with the increase in the number of people that visited the public market in the rush for the purchase of goods to be used for their Christmas and Noche Buena preparations.

Although there was a dip in their sales for the Yuletide break, he explained they were already satisfied with the outcome of the influx of local residents and tourists to the market which is an indication that the city has already recovered from the nightmares brought about by the recent typhoons that inflicted heavy damages to the different parts of Northern Luzon.

While admitting there was a significant increase in the number of people that flocked to the various business establishments in the city over the past several days, Calimlim revealed people have cut down on their expenses for their Noche Buena and Christmas preparations since they preferred to donate part of their resources to the calamity victims in the different parts of the country.

Calimlim observed during ordinary days, their sales have almost doubled because of the continuous influx of foreign and domestic tourists but they could not blame the people for cutting down on their expenses for the Yuletide celebrations.