These gift shops and souvenir stores thrive on tourists to keep their businesses open, but tourists are looking at spending their vacations somewhere else where there are bigger malls with more attractions.
You see majority of these gift shops everyday with only the sales clerks and cashiers inside, and a handful of tourists every now and then who more often than not, come out of the stores empty handed. These stores have to pay for rent, utility, salaries and operating costs to keep the business open and they are barely making ends meet. As a result, in the last few years, more gift shops closed down and more ‘FOR RENT’ signs went up.
Lani Castro of Crystal Palace/Satine store in Garapan said business is very slow these days, compared to some years back when customers would just pick up any product without asking about the price.
“Customers now are so few and far between, and when we get customers, they ask for more discounts on anything than we can give,” Castro said.
Before, they were always on their feet to entertain a steady stream of customers.
She said customers would just pick up souvenir items by bulk to bring home with them.
“I remember Japanese customers flocking to the stores and buying all the Bojobo dolls they can lay hands on without even asking the price after word got around that a Japanese who bought a pair of Bojobo dolls from here got wealthy because of it,” Castro said. The price of Bojobo dolls went up from $50 to as high as $100 a pair.
But those days are long gone, she said.
Annie Rose of Annie Imuza, a gift shop that cater to Japanese tourists, told the Variety that business these days is a very far cry from years before.
“With very few Japanese tourists here, it’s a wonder we still manage to keep the business alive,” she said.
Before the Japan Air Lines pulled out of Saipan, the store could make as much as $7,000 sales daily. She said they would also get online orders and ship their products to Japan before.
Bestsellers
The top selling products that tourists buy from gift shops and small stores carry the name of Saipan, but are not manufactured here.
Small trinkets and souvenir items attract more tourists to bring home to their places of origin.
Stores in Garapan such as the ABC Store, A1 Gift Shop, 7 Stars Store, Star Best Cafe, 99/22 Store, Mama Store, and other smaller gift shops said although they make sales every now and then, everyone is struggling to keep afloat.
Variety learned that the bestselling items in these stores are chocolates made in Hawaii, dried mangoes from the Philippines, key holders, magnetic holders and other trinkets with Saipan, Tinian or Rota printed on them but these are made in China and other places, Saipan coconut chips that are processed in Thailand, coconut products such as bags and handicrafts, shirts and other small items.
Made in Saipan
The only products that are among the bestsellers in the stores which are authentically made or produced on island are the Bojobo dolls and the Noni products such as juice, oil and others.
But sales have not been that brisk especially for Bojobo dolls as imitation products have emerged in the market.
Most of the sales staff in the stores said overseas customers can no longer distinguish between the authentic Saipan-made Bojobo dolls from those than are made in other countries such as China that are being sold online at lower prices.
Some of the store staff who have been in the island for the past 10 to 20 years and who have witnessed Saipan’s heydays are still hopeful that things will get better.
“Before, you see Garapan as one place that never sleeps and where there is no stop to the flow of people. Now, the place is a ghost town but we still hope that things will get better,” Annie Rose said.
A small fashion and jewelry store owner who refused to be identified blamed the economic downfall on the government “which did nothing but make the lives of investors and businessmen in the island harder with their crazy regulations.”
“I hope the government open their eyes and see that there is nothing else to offer tourists on this island so they so should make things easier for businessmen,” the store owner said. “We are at the least of their priorities.”
