Daily lives of ukay-ukay vendors

According to Jessica, the workload in FDL is light and undemanding and is in fact not
exhausting, per se. Unlike saleswomen and salesmen in malls who are prohibited to sit down all-
day long, they can sit down during dead hours provided that they remain alert of their
surroundings. For her and even for Jake, it only gets a little stressful when there are new arrivals
because they need to sort out the items from the boxes, hang them, and then place them in their
respective racks. Furthermore, there is a necessity for them to be on their toes and to be more
attentive due to the expected boom of customers who are bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, eager to
go into the adventure of searching for branded items they can purchase at lower prices.

Both Jessica and Jake could not recall a lot of peculiar and eerie happenings or incidences
in the shop. Inappropriate actions of customers in the shop are not prominent and rampant that
one would not need all of his fingers to count them. The most recent incident of shoplifting in
FDL Katipunan, however ironic, involved a student from Ateneo. The student went inside the
shop’s fitting room and put some items inside his bag before going out. They also told an
anecdote involving an Atenean who micturated in their fitting room. They no longer elaborated
on the details of the event, but they speculate that the student was in a rush and could no longer
hold it in and look for a comfort room. When they look back at this narrative and tell others
about it, they just smile in amusement of what happened.

Filipino ukay-ukay businesses would get their stocks through warehouses, ship them to
the Philippines through balikbayan boxes, and sell them themselves or through other retailers.

The most famous ukay-ukay stock suppliers would be from Hong Kong. Filipino ukay-
ukay businesses would get their stocks through warehouses, ship them to the Philippines through
balikbayan boxes, and sell them themselves or through other retailers.

Retailers generate about PhP20,000 to PhP50,000 as revenues per month. During the peak
sale season, revenues generally tend to increase. On the average, a small stall can generate
between PhP500 and PhP1,000 as daily revenues; however, some report zero sales on certain
days.

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, Generation Y prefers cheaper clothes
that are of lesser quality visa-vis older generations that prefer 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 means advancements in alliances with suppliers in
different markets and recalibrated infrastructure to promote reduced lead times while
maintaining low production costs (Bhardwaj & Fairhurst, 2010).

Distribution is not only limited to the stalls or stores themselves. Sellers also utilize
eBay.ph and pull out their merchandise from the physical stores when bids on the site give better
prices. Items have more detailed descriptions, including serial numbers and certifications of
authenticity (Locsin, 2007).

In the advent of other sites, such as Carousel and Shoppee, common folk who do not have
their own stalls for their secondhand goods can sell what they refer to as “pre-loved” items
(which is a politically-correct way of terming “used” items). Customer satisfaction for these can
be determined by the seller’s rating, response rate, and other evaluation measures provided by
the online selling sites. One question that can be asked is if the sustainability of these products is
discussed by the customers and sellers.

Most ukay stores sell at flexible prices as opposed to fixed prices; thus, customers can
bargain or negotiate prices.

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, although the fashion companies are suffering from the effects of the
pandemic on their sales, this could be a good time to reimagine sustainability along with the
changing consumer desires outbreak and post-outbreak.

As the ukay-ukay is still highly dependent on existing fashion companies for their
merchandise, the changes they employ in their business models would still have effects on the
ukayukay’s sustainability, COVID-19 or not.

One interesting ukay-ukay-influenced trend is the online reselling of pre-loved items of

Filipino celebrities such as luxury bags, helmets, clothes, and accessories to raise funds for
COVID-19 efforts.
 Economically, ukay-ukay online finds will still be less expensive than luxury brands even
during a virus outbreak. In the National Capital Region, although online shopping portals were
suspended for a short period of time, such were restored into business after a few weeks. The
same seller-buyer relationship dynamics and flexible pricing schemes would dictate customer
satisfaction. Again, assuming people would be interested in purchasing non-essential items such
as clothing or accessories during a pandemic, the same customers would be loyal to their online
ukay-ukay vendors.

There has also been a surge of online shops that sell “vintage clothes,” style the pieces to
make the pieces more attractive to “middle-class taste,” and sell them in a much higher price.
Some thrift shops have even already marketed themselves as a seller of “class A” secondhand
clothing.

Abueg, L. C. (2005). The economics of secondhand retail trade: An analysis of the market for
ukay-ukay. Philippine Journal of Development, 32(1), 52–77.
https://dirp4.pids.gov.ph/ris/pjd/pidspjd05-1ukay.pdf
Allas, J. R., Cabrera, A. K., Chan, J., Daradar, T. B., Justo, K., Parreño, E. A. (2019). Ukay-
Ukay Unraveled: Fleur de Lis Through Ethnographic Lenses.
https://thehappyandgayexperience.wordpress.com/2019/12/02/ukay-ukay-unraveled-fleur-de-lis-
through-ethnographic-lenses\
Bhardwaj, V., & Fairhurst, A. (2010). Fast fashion: Response to changes in the fashion industry.
The International Review of Retail, Distribution and Consumer Research, 20(1), 165–173.
https://www.dlsu.edu.ph/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/12Biana.pdf?
fbclid=IwAR12VjBYaKdwZmhmMFm24ov1Mc6j_bVkzQzECX_0Pp1e6XEAVvS_Nr3nZuk
Biana, H. T. (2020) The Philippine Ukay-Ukay Culture as Sustainable Fashion
https://www.dlsu.edu.ph/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/12Biana-revised.pdf?
fbclid=IwAR04GrCS54qKv3T4_hFjCTqosbaCUGOk90usMMW5R52wGxUJwHMoIfZcyJc

Ladrido, P. (2018). When ukay-ukay is more than a challenge.

https://cnnphilippines.com/life/style/2018/04/27/ukayukay-more-than-a-challenge.html?
fbclid=IwAR0ayM1PW6aFLtbIc8uVA2ue2m4er4hB7XF4-JYcn0nmCQoFe5rsxICmxwc

Locsin, M. R. (2007). Fashioning a culture through Baguio City’s Ukay-Ukay. In Inter: A

European cultural studies: Conference in Sweden 11-13 June 2007 (pp. 371–379).
https://www.dlsu.edu.ph/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/12Biana.pdf?
fbclid=IwAR12VjBYaKdwZmhmMFm24ov1Mc6j_bVkzQzECX_0Pp1e6XEAVvS_Nr3nZuk