A P500 Louis Vuitton bag

Did you know 1: Former Finance Secretary Jose Isidro Camacho was seen last week hanging out in the room at the Development Bank of the Philippines, which was assigned to him when he was still the boss of all government financial institutions.

You see, Lito Camacho was, uh, hiding from reporters who wanted to hear more of his comments on the country’s fiscal problem, which he tried to solve (without much creativeness, mind you) by entering into more and more loan agreements that all our grandchildren – including his – will be paying for.

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Did you know 2: There’s a place along Juan Luna St. in Divisoria that sells Louis Vuitton bags for P500 a pop. Made in China (where almost everything bought in Europe and the United States these days are made), these bags have all the markings of the real thing – the L.V monogram not just on the zipper but also in the inside side pocket.

Okay, so the plastic carryall isn’t much of a glam-bag compared to the Dalmatian series, which retails for close to P80,000 a bag at the newly opened L.V store in Makati but, hey, its buyer can claim to own (just like 95 percent of all Japanese women) at least one Louis Vuitton product.

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Did you know 3: Retail space is more and more expensive. Consider this. A less than one-month lease in the Greenhills flea market or tiangge goes for P30,000. The newest outlet of PureGold near the Makati racetrack leases the standard two by two for between P15,000 and P17,000 a month.

Taking to heart the standard wisdom for small entrepreneurs of keeping the lease at below P10,000 a month, many start-up businesses are looking outside Metro Manila like SM-Marilao where, surprisingly, there is enough consumer-driven activity.

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Cinco Holdings Corp. president Jose Magsaysay has a hell of a business proposition for overseas Filipino workers, starting with the ones based in Hong Kong.

Basically, Jomag Magsaysay is selling franchising packages for three fast food concepts – Potato Corner, China China, and Quick Styx – but with a twist. An OFW who wants to be a franchisee can opt to let Cinco Holdings (instead of an inexperienced relative) run the business for him/her. A variant of this is for a group of OFWs to pool their resources so they can get a franchise.

Whatever is earned goes to the franchisee less a pre-agreed management fee, of course.