Changi Village Flea Market changes location

It was a last minute decision to join last Saturday's Night Flea Market at Changi Village. The Flea Market organisers have moved the stall locations to across the street. It used to be located next to the hawker centre (between the two rows of shop houses) and it's now across the street at Block 5 in front of the coffee shops. Not an ideal location if you ask me. I believe the crowd is over at the hawker centre side but I understand that the permanent shop owners there weren't too happy with a night flea market being in competition with them on a weekend.

We were informed that when we had taken a hiatus from that flea market (for nearly a whole month), people had asked for us (wah, thank you, thank you!). They said they thought another stall selling hand painted shoes were us until they took a closer look at the designs and felt that something was amiss; that the designs were not quite like ours. They said the stall owners were telling people they were cheaper than others. Eh, sorry ah, that's NOT Cartoon Lagoon! We do not claim to be cheaper than others. We've done our math. A lot of time and effort (not to mention expensive art materials) goes into our designs and painting and we aren't shy to tell you that if we don't charge what we charge, we will go bust tomorrow. If anything, in Singapore, prices for hand painted stuff and craftwork are relatively reasonable. If you consider this to be art at all, it's a fair price to be paying. We also don't think it fair to compare just prices across hand painted shoe companies considering there are some people who just slap on some paint and call them hand painted shoes, while others put in alot of effort.

If you do not see the Cartoon Lagoon label or copyright mark, it's most likely not our shoes. Cartoon Lagoon promises you quality, love and affection in each and every pair. At flea market promotions, we often have discounted pairs, freebies to give away and also offers like free delivery (not every time though, now with escalating petrol costs, you can understand that it's not cost effective!)

We sell our shoes online, through word of mouth (thank you to our fanstastic customers!) and at the occasional flea market. Sometimes, customers are surprised when they learn that the designs are ours and we hand paint the shoes ourselves. Some even thought the shoes were printed ones! Hey, we're hoping to get our designs printed one day, so if there's anyone with ideas, we'd welcome discussions with you!

We joined the Changi Flea Market last Saturday not so much to promote our shoes but more because we've just moved house and have tonnes of stuff which are still in good condition and too 'sayang' to throw away. My kids and I are avid readers and although we'd already given away piles of books, we've still got piles of books left.

In my haste to join the flea market, I only realised after setting up the booth, that I hadn't posted it on our blog, so I'd called my daughter up (who was on the computer at home), to put up a post. I also explained to her that our customers had told us, that while we were away, they got another stall confused with us and so to inform the customers to to look out for the Cartoon Lagoon label and copyright mark. Eh, what did this teenager do? She followed the first part of the instructions to the T and said we were at blah, blah, blah. For the second part, she encouraged customers to give us support and not buy from the other shops! I nearly fell off my chair when I read the post the next day! I amended the post and reminded her the responsibility that came with online postings. I knew she meant well but it isn't in our nature to put our competitors down. Am pretty sure she felt sheepish (and probably felt she wouldn't be so willing to do Mummy a favour again!).

We're a legitimate business and we're striving to run a business model to look beyond today. We prefer to emulate the hand painted shoe companies who have remained in business after some time and not the hit-and-run mum and pop shops. We hope to be around for a long time to serve you! Viva la Cartoon Lagoon!