10 April 2006
By Ephraim Aguilar
PDI Southern Luzon Bureau
DARAGA, ALBAY—THE WOMAN does not mind the sweat streaming down her face as she picks from a pool of fabrics she calls a “bargain.”
She is another mother shopping for an affordable “find” that would give a touch of elan to her or her kids’ wardrobes. Put another way, she is one of the “worshippers” of the “ukay-ukay” that lurk in profitable corners of this town.
Shopkeepers
“Wagwag” or ukay-ukay, a colloquial term derived from the Filipino word “halukay,” which means to forage through a heap in search of something, has encouraged the entrepreneurial spirit in a number of shopkeepers here.
Shopowners welcome the lower-incomed to their stores that sell used clothes from countries such as the United States and the United Kingdom.
The stores welcome the “bargain-hunters” seeking clothes for as low as P2 to P10, which cater mainly to the masses. These clothes are usually those that are not displayed in ukay-ukay stores, meaning they are the less standard ones, and are just placed on the “bargain table.”
This table of bargain clothes is always present among ukay-ukay vendors.
Mariel Mapalo, an ukay-ukay owner in Daraga town, about six kilometers from downtown Legazpi City, says most of her customers flock the “bargain table” more than any other set of items in her store, and most people who buy come from the poor.
In Daraga, there are at least 16 ukay-ukay establishments located just alongside the wet market area where the smell of clothes and dried fish mix.
These ukay-ukay are far from the tiangges that, although they sell second-hand products, manage to maintain well-kept stores.
Here, you can even see some pieces of bargain clothes on the soil and the storekeepers do not bother picking them up.
Most saleable
The first thing vendors here would display are blouses, commonly ranging from P10 to about P50, given the fact that most customers are women. Next in line are shorts, ranging from P10 to P50.
“Since most of the buyers here are the masses, we cannot mark up our prices that much,” Mapalo says.
Bags and shoes are the most expensive ukay-ukay items and the least sold. Prices of bags range from P50-P150 while those of the shoes range from P30 to P1,200.
Asked which of the brands are most saleable, Mapalo says people, especially the impoverished ones, are not really particular with the brands anymore.
She adds that seldom does she find famous signature clothes from the bulk delivered to her from Manila.
“In this business, the bulk of clothes are sealed when they are delivered, so you don’t get to choose which items you are going to sell. We rely on fate, hoping that we get the good box all the time,” Mapalo claims.
Katrina Urutia, a fresh graduate from the Bicol University, used to shop at the ukay-ukay here during her college years. Her group of eight would shop during weekends.
“It was the time when new bulks of clothes arrived. That is what they call them bagong wagwag (new releases),” the 20-year-old student recalls. “I had never been particular with the brand. I was after good quality and the overall look and feel.”
Business side
Mapalo, a mother of two children, and who has been in the business for almost eight years now, started with a P2,000 capital, which she loaned from a friend.
Now her daily earnings range from P360 to P5,000, while daily rent for her store is P180. She also has to pay for electricity.
Mapalo adds that her income from the ukay-ukay is only to subsidize their family’s food and other necessities. The schooling of her two children, both enrolled in private schools here, is being taken cared of by her husband’s parents now living in the US.
To start an ukay-ukay business here, one has to purchase a bulk of ukay-ukay products being shuttled from Manila. A bulk of 46 kilos would amount to P1,800-P4,500 while a bulk of 100 kilos would amount to P8,000-P17,000.
There is a tight competition among ukay-ukay establishments in the market. Some stores drop prices just to have cash to pay bills.
The peak season of sales in ukay-ukay here is December. Low months are August to September.
Mapalo opens her store at around 6:30 a.m. and closes it at around 5 p.m.
Filipino society
Prof. Eddie Balunso of the Bicol University (BU) Sociology Department says the need to change one’s look is one reason why Filipinos patronize the ukay-ukay.
“Some people want to look like their idols and the only way they can afford a similar look is through the ukay-ukay,” Balunso says.
Vendors agree there are more women buying ukay-ukay items than men. Balunso says most of her customers are housewives who buy clothes for themselves and their children.
Dr. Dolly Laguilles, chair of the BU Sociology Department, explains this as the “feminization of poverty,” which means that the women, the predominant ukay-ukay buyers, are the ones affected by poverty firsthand.
Even in ukay-ukays, there is a reflection of class struggle.
“The ukay-ukay caters to all sectors, including the middle class and the well-off. But the poor buy the rejects. Here you can see that there is still the stratification of society even in ukay-ukays,” Laguilles says.
The ukay-ukay, though it serves as a coping mechanism to poverty and helps those who cannot afford to buy expensive clothes, has a downside.
Balunso, who is taking up Master of Arts in Sociology at the Ateneo de Manila University, says the existence of ukay-ukays is detrimental to local producers.
There is a stereotype association of the ukay-ukay to imported items. Thus at work here is the colonial mentality in Filipinos.
However, Balunso says it is not really colonial mentality at work, but simply, the money. Or the lack of it.
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