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On Balikbayan Box and Outsourcing
January 28, 2005
Even if it is that obvious, sometimes I still wonder how the phrase "balikbayan box" came about. Or who exactly coined it. I mean, it's just a 2' by 3' box made of corrugated cardboard, maybe single-wall or double-wall, the latter I prefer because it's obviously sturdier. We know what a "balikbayan" is, often used as a noun referring to a person who just returned from working or living abroad. So a "balikbayan box" is just that. A box full of stuff brought by, or in most cases nowadays, sent by somebody from the US of A to relatives back home in the Philippines.
Let's think outside the box for a moment (you saw that one coming, did you?). The box's size is unique in a way that you can only purchase it in a Filipino store. Not in Ikea, Home Depot, The Container Store or the Post Office, for that matter. It is small enough to meet the maximum airline baggage restrictions, yet big enough to accommodate the contents of a one-bedroom apartment. I doubt if somebody actually patented this, I mean, the box and the name. If nobody did, this should be one colossal mistake easily on the level with the smilie face. Would you believe the man who created the smilie face earned only 49 cents for his creation since he did not patent it? Ignorance is not bliss, after all. Imagine what he could have earned with those annoying Wal-Mart commercials.
Here's another good thing about the balikbayan box. You can fill it up to the brim with anything that doesn't violate custom regulations and still pay the same flat fee. There is no weight limit as long as you ship it via a cargo service which ships it by sea. You can ship your 200-pound mot... (okay, it's a bad joke, edited). It takes at least 30 days to arrive but who cares? You are not shipping Krispy Kreme Donuts anyway, or gallons of Haagen-Daz'. The fee ranges from $65 to $90 depending on the season and the destination. Shipping to an address in Manila, for example, is cheaper compared to an address in the Visayas. Most cargo services utilize a local shipping company like Pambato or LBC to ship boxes to the provinces once they arrive in Manila. And make no mistake about it. Lost balikbayan boxes or their contents are usually traced to these local shipping companies.
The thought behind sending a balikbayan box is simple - you have the privilege of working and living in the United States, you are supposed to send something back home. And since most of us who are in the U.S. came from lower to middle-class families in the Philippines, somehow the practice becomes obligatory for several reasons, true or not. Reason 1 - we send things that we know they can actually use or consume, food, clothes, little electronic stuff. Reason 2 - we send stuff because supposedly we have a better life than they have, emphasis on supposedly. Reason 3 - we send so they can brag about it, that it came from their sons or daughters in the U.S. Reason 4 - We send because there are things that we don't need that they might, like clothes that no longer fit, or timeless magazines like National Geographic. Reason 5 - we send things because we are thoughtful. We feel good about doing it. It doesn't matter if we send a bag of disposable shavers or a brand-new laptop, our relatives appreciate it. And reason 6 - we send because we want them to own a piece that says "Made in the USA". We just couldn't run away from our colonial past, could we?
Those reasons are all fine and dandy but I hate to burst your bubble, especially if you're on the receiving end. Reason no. 6 is not completely true. Majority of the things in the U.S. are not made here and for that matter, you have to search high and low for something that says "Made in the USA". I'll explain why this is so in a little bit. If you receive something that does not say where it was made, perhaps your hardworking son or daughter already cut off the tag or scraped off the sticker. Sa Amerika man ang bata' ko. Nga-a nga Made in Taiwan man ini?
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I have this friend, let's call her Wendy, who used to spend all week looking for a pair of Levi's pants that say "Made in the USA". Nga-a nga sa Atrium made in the USA ang mga pantalon didto, diri sa Amerika, made in Mexico? It's actually an interesting question. I visited a Guess store at SM Shoemart years ago and every tag says Made in the USA. When I visited a Guess store in a mall near our place, you can hardly find one that says so, mostly Made in China or Assembled in Mexico. Do they purposely tag these products "Made in the USA" in other countries as a marketing strategy even if they're not?
There is a reason why you can hardly find basic products in the U.S. that are made here. They are usually manufactured overseas. Reason? Cheap labor. Just imagine if you have a factory here that makes children's clothes. Of course, you have to pay your workers in the vicinity of $5 to 7 an hour. You'll get this all back and turn a nice profit if you sell your products at a price that covers the labor. Then comes a competitor who built his factory in China and only pays workers the equivalent of 50 cents a day for turning out a product of the same quality. So who do you think could sell the cheaper product? And whose product do you think the average American patronizes?
My neighbor got layed-off from his work at Motorola cell-phone manufacturing plant for the same reason. Motorola used to manufacture its cellular phones here. When the likes of Nokia, LG, and Samsung came into the picture, they folded, closed all their manufacturing plants in the U.S. and moved to Mexico.
And this "outsourcing", as the economics people would call it, is not limited to products but to services as well. I remember calling American Express about a year ago and a lady with a very thick accent was at the other line, which is nothing unusual actually. Minorities comprise a big bulk of the American workforce. But during a lull in our conversation I thought I'd ask, 'where are you exactly'? I was expecting something like Lincoln, Nebraska. To my astonishment, she answered, 'New Delhi, India'.
It doesn't surprise me anymore. I hear that in Manila, call-centers pay at least Php20,000 a month. Not bad, especially if you think that first year residents in a private Manila Hospital hardly get Php8,000. You have to be fluent in English though, as you are answering clients from the U.S. and you have to get used to understanding American "conversational English". A good training video would be one or all of the Beverly Hills Cop movies. Who knows, you might someday even talk to Eddie Murphy, asking you why his PC would not reboot.
It seems like "Made in USA" stuff are hard to get by here. It's not like you have a choice, goods that are made elsewhere placed side by side with the ones made in the US. They just could not compete, price-wise. Even high-end stores like Marshall Fields sell $60-Tommy Hilfiger shirts that are made in the Philippines. That's a fact of life and there's absolutely nothing wrong with it, unless of course you ask John Kerry. Americans benefit from low prices and jobs are generated in other countries, including the Philippines. So are jobs being taken away from Americans? That's an issue for another day.
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It's quite hard to tell the percentage of products made in other countries compared to those made here in the U.S. If you go to Wal-Mart (that's the store for the rest of us who don't earn 6 figures), that's probably close to a hundred percent. If I do an inventory of all the things in my household, it's probably close to a hundred percent too. But I don't have the time to do that so I thought of doing an unscientific study on a smaller scale. When I came home from work the other day, I decided to check everything on my body as I took them off, one by one. I thought this should give you an idea what I am trying to illustrate here.
Here goes:
sunglasses, Oakley, Made in USA
wool cap, Starter, Made in China
shoes, Skechers, Made in China
socks, n/a, n/a
handkerchief, n/a, n/a
leather jacket, Wilson's, Made in China
sweatshirt, Concensus, Made in Italy
dress shirt, Van Heusen, Made in Hongkong
undershirt, Hanes, Assembled in Jamaica
wallet, Guess, Made in India
watch, Fossil, Made in Japan
cellphone, LG, Made in Korea
belt, Levi's, Made in China
pants, Dockers, Made in Mexico
one-last-one, Hanes, Assembled in Honduras
Please don't paint a picture of me in your mind at this point.
Later that night, all dressed up, while I was typing this on my laptop, I decided to take a peek underneath. Let's add one more:
laptop, Dell Inspiron, Made in Malaysia
Out of the 14 things that I checked (2 n/a's excluded), randomly if I may add, 13 were made somewhere else. That's a whopping 93%. I can go on and on, from our window blinds to bath towels. From the kitchen knife to picture frames. From shirts to shorts. The percentage will just go up.
So, with the exception of a few edibles, like cookies and chocolates, similar things go into every balikbayan box. I always explain this to my folks, ever since my brother wondered about the Volkswagen parts I sent him were made in Taiwan. He was expecting made in the USA, of course. I told him, that's not the way things are here. And that I did not send him anything inferior. There is no other choice.
I bet if somebody does the same unscientific study I did, the results will be more or less similar. There is nobody in America who can claim a hundred percent Made in USA, from head to toe. Well, except for the statue of Liberty perhaps. Wait, she was made in France, wasn't she?
If you are on the receiving end, you should know this too, so your hardworking relatives don't need to cut tags or scrape off stickers. My friend, Wendy, once scraped off a Made in China engraving on a jewelry box she was sending home. You destroyed that thing, I said. It's better than to let them see that 'Made in China', she answered. Why do they have to engrave it anyway, they could have put it easily on a sticker, she added. Oh, well.
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Gurnee Mills (site), an outlet shopping mall north of Chicago near the Wisconsin state line, is one of our favorite shopping spots if it's time to fill up balikbayan boxes. Outlet malls are very popular for bargain-shoppers, with outlet stores for name brands from Abercrombie & Fitch to Zales. Products are usually discounted from 30% to 90% off.
Wait. You're sending stuff that are only on sale? Isn't that stingy?
Whoa. Who are you calling stingy? You should work for the United Nations.
The reasoning behind it is simple. You are not sending one thing. You're sending a box or boxes of things. If you work on a certain budget, you can buy more with so little. You can send 3 instead of 1. And geez, let's get real. You're not sending to only one relative, except perhaps on special occasions like it's your brother's birthday or something. You're sending to a barangay of relatives. And your relatives, in turn, get more instead of just one.
Outlet malls are not really different from regular malls as far as products sold are concerned. The only difference is they're not located in metropolitan areas and usually situated near state lines along expressways. The buildings are not that fancy and there are no elaborate decorations. There's no 60-year-old man in business suit playing Mozart on the piano or maybe even Yoyo Ma playing the cello. I think most major brands have stores in an outlet mall. However they decide what products they put in their stores is anybody's guess. Or maybe there's no reason at all. And there's no truth to the rumor that a pair of Levi's pants in an outlet mall's got an extra leg.
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Most of our folks don't really ask for anything but we send anyway. My father, for example, whenever I ask him what he wants, only says disposable shavers and black hair dye. I gave him a fancy shaver before, named I think after some fighter jet, and it broke after a month. So he asked if there's something that he can use and toss afterwards. Disposable shavers to the rescue.
Hard work goes into every balikbayan box. The contents are not free, mind you. And packing them can be a pain too.
Above all, let us appreciate a balikbayan box for what it really is. A box full of thoughts, love, and hard work. The material contents don't really matter anymore.
So don't make a big fuss about where they were made.
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Views expressed on this column and any other by-lined articles on this site are the authors' own and do not necessarily reflect the views of the organization or its members.
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