Maybe it is not of my business Frank. But do you really need to go to POP? Are you 100% sure that you cannot live without those things that you want to buy in POP? Cannot you wait until return to NYC where you can buy anything safely?
Just a thought aloud... nothing personal
I "rented" a taxi driver for the better part of a day, about two years ago, for a tourist tour of Puerto Plata.
I paid about $80 US from Cabarete to Puerto Plata and back. The trip included the fort, cigar factory, shopping, and the cable car ride to the top of the mountain that overlooks POP.
The driver was my "chauffeur" for the day, and waited for me, as long as I wanted, for me to tour the different sites.
I'm sure you can find one to do the same thing for you with the shopping, I bet a publico taxi driver would do the same thing for even less, but you'd have to go up to the stand in Sosua and find a driver that will understand what you want to do.......