10% price cut at Diskwento Caravans in time for school

Parents in remote areas can buy their children’s school supplies in the Department of Trade and Industry’s (DTI) Diskwento Caravan or at partner retail establishments offering price discounts of at least 10 percent.

DTI Regional Director Asteria Caberte said the roving caravan, which kicks off tomorrow, will visit different provinces in Central Visayas.

Vans will park in a specific areas following a set schedule.

“The roving caravan caters to areas far from major business establishments in a province so that people don’t need to go too far to buy their children’s school supplies,” Caberte said.

The schedule is June 5 in Dalaguete town, Cebu and June 6 in Argao town.

In Negros Oriental, the caravan is in Bayawan City on June 1 and Guihulngan in June 3.

In Bohol, the vans will be there from June 7 to 10 covering towns of Talibon, Trinidad, Ubay, Loboc, Sevilla and Baclayon. On June 3 and 10, the caravan goes to Siquijor.
Caberte said the schedules are timed a week before the opening of classes in the area.

“We encourage parents to take advantage of this caravan because they can save over 10 percent from the regular market price of school supplies,” she said.

Supplies for sale include bags, shoes, school uniforms, notebooks, pad papers, pencil cases, lunch boxes, raincoats, socks, ballpens and pencils.

DTI-partner retail establishments will offer the same merchandise and prices.

Price monitoring by DTI starting May revealed that while some products had increased prices, most school supplies retained the same level as last year’s.

“For the 80-leaves pad paper, we only noted Advance Pack brand as the one that increased its price by 12 percent from P20.35 a year ago to P22.75 this year. Other products of the same specifications increased very minimally with only 25 centavos to 50 centavos or between 2 percent to 3 percent only.

Some prices even decreased, said Caberte.

She advised parents to look for quality goods.

“There are so many options now in the market. All they need to do is check the quality,” Caberte said.