Daily lives of ukay-ukay vendors

As per Jessica, the FDL has a light workload, is not demanding, and is not very energetic
in itself. In contrast to shopping center sales assistants, who are prohibited from sitting all day,
you can sit during breaks if you keep an eye on your surroundings. When newcomers arrive, it
can be a bit stressful for them and Jake, as they need to organize things from the boxes, hang
them, and then put them on the proper shelves. In addition, they need to be vigilant and more
careful due to the expected boom of bright-eyed and bushy-tailed customers looking for branded
products to buy at low prices.

Neither Jessica nor Jake remembered the strange and eerie events and incidents in the
store. Inappropriate customer behavior in the store is less noticeable and less widespread, so you
won't need all your fingers to count them. Ironically, the recent shoplifting incident at FDL
Katipunan involved Ateneo students. The student went to the store's locker room and put some
items in his bag before going out. They also shared an anecdote with an Athens woman who was
ridiculing in her locker room. They no longer went into the details of the event, but speculated
that the students were in a hurry and could no longer grab it and find a comfortable room. When
you look back at this story and tell others about it, they just entertain and smile at what
happened.

Filipino ukay-ukay businesses gets their stocks from big warehouses, and ships the items to
the Philippines using balikbayan boxes, and immediately sell the items through other retailers.

The most famous ukay-ukay inventory supplier is from Hong Kong. Ukay-ukay companies
in the Philippines procured inventory through warehouses, shipped to the Philippines through
Balikbayan crates, and sold through their own or other retailers.

Retailers earn about PhP20,000 to PhP50,000 as revenues per month. During the peak sale
season, the money they earn generally tend to increase. On average, a small Ukay-ukay stand can
earn between 500 and 1,000 pesos per day. However, there are reports that sales are zero on
weekdays.

Consumer fashion behavior has changed throughout the years. They are more demanding and
discerning, they demand retailers to produce fashion quickly when they need it, and they demand
convenient, quick, or fast fashion. In particular, the current generation which is generation Y
prefers cheaper and affordable clothes to buy. On the other hand, older generations prefer to buy
more expensive but higher quality clothes. Although previous fashion companies focused on
their product, competition has forced them to convert into being buyer-driven. This represents an
ongoing partnership with suppliers in a variety of markets and a readjusted infrastructure to help
reduce lead times while keeping production costs low. (Bhardwaj & Fairhurst, 2010).

Distribution is not limited to the booth or the store itself. Sellers use eBay.ph to withdraw
goods from physical stores when bids on the site offer better prices. The item has a more detailed
description such as serial number and Certificate of Authenticity (Locsin, 2007).

With the advent of other websites like Carousel and Shopee, the general public without
second-hand stalls has called what they call "popular" items (the politically correct term for
"second-hand" items). You can sell it. Customer satisfaction with these can be determined by
seller ratings, response rates, and other metrics provided by online sales sites. One question you
can ask is whether the sustainability of these products is being discussed by customers and
sellers.

Most Ukay-ukay stalls are sold at the most flexible prices, not fixed prices. Therefore, the
customer can negotiate the prices of the items. (2018)

Some customers do not like to haggle; thus, the fixed price prevails, but when consumers
enjoy bargaining, the prices become flexible. Sometimes, flexible pricing comes at the very end
when the customer buys clothes in bulk, and the seller decides to throw in a wholesale discount.

Consequently, fashion companies are suffering from the impact of pandemics on sales,
which may be a good opportunity to rethink sustainability, as consumers' desires for both
outbreaks and post-outbreak change.

Since ukay-ukay still relies heavily on existing fashion companies for its products, the
changes they make to its business model will affect ukay-ukay's sustainability whether COVID
19 or not.

An interesting trend influenced by ukay-ukay is to resell popular Filipino celebrity items

such as luxury bags, helmets, clothing and accessories online to raise funds for COVID19's
efforts.
 Economically, ukay-ukay shoppers believes that even if a virus occurs, it is cheaper than
luxury brands online. In Metro Manila, the online shopping portal was closed for a short time,
but reopened a few weeks later. The same dynamics of seller-buyer relationships and flexible
pricing models determine customer satisfaction. Assuming people were interested in buying non-
essential items like clothing and accessories during the pandemic, the same customers would be
loyal to their online ukay-ukay vendors.

There is also a surge in online stores that sell second-hand clothing, style it to make
"middle-class tastes" more attractive, and sell it at much higher prices. Some thrift stores sell
themselves as "class A" thrift sellers. (Ladrido, 2018)

Marian, one of the 2018 GMA Celebrity Ukay-ukay Ambassadors, sold a popular item at
her booth at Noel Bazaar last December. According to Marian, the funds that she got from her
booth will have a good cause. (2019)

Well know ukay-ukay queen Shaira Luna has an actual closet sale wherein she resells her
ukay finds. She sells her pre-loved (raised to the power of two) clothes is a way to “recycle,
reuse, and rotate items when we can” (Sison, 2017, par. 2).

GMAKF founder and ambassador Mel Tiangco said of Marian’s gesture: "I was surprised
that the Foundation would come and join us in this fight against poverty without disturbing her."
Mel Tiangco proudly said.
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ukay-ukay. Philippine Journal of Development, 32(1), 52–77.
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Bhardwaj, V., & Fairhurst, A. (2010). Fast fashion: Response to changes in the fashion industry.
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Locsin, M. R. (2007). Fashioning a culture through Baguio City’s Ukay-Ukay. In Inter: A

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Sison, S. (2018, February 28). This 27-year-old Filipina will change your perception on ukay
clothes. Preview Magazine. Retrieved from https://www.preview.ph/ fashion/preview-crush-
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The Philippine Star. (2019). Marian donates celebrity Ukay-ukay proceeds to GMA Kapuso
Foundation. https://www.pressreader.com