Quality, cheap prices lure people to buy used clothing

JAKARTA (JP): Fashion hunters can now find good quality clothes at cheap prices at Senen market in Central Jakarta or Glodok market in West Jakarta.

A frequent customer at Senen market, Suwandi, 42, confirmed the quality and cheap prices of the clothes offered at the market.

"You can get pretty good quality clothes with low prices here," Suwandi, who was looking for a blouse for his daughter, told The Jakarta Post.

From Suwandi's appearance, it was apparent that he did not come from a low-income family.

Another customer, Liana, 43, who was excited as she selected items from a pile of women's shirts under a sign marked "only Rp 5,000 (55 US cents)", said it was her first time to go to a secondhand store.

"I heard about this place a lot. The styles are pretty nice. I'm very pleased," she said.

The store was one of many shops in the market which offers various used clothing. People can buy shirts for as low as Rp 5,000, a pair of pants for as low as Rp 10,000 or a very nice T- shirt for Rp 10,000.

People can also buy used leather jackets in good condition at the market. They usually open a bid at Rp 150,000. A good bargaining skill is definitely needed to shop at the stores.

Similar vendors can also be found in Glodok, West Jakarta.

A couple which owns a store at Senen market, Dodi Siahaan and Ronika Rajagukguk, said they had thousands of used shirts, jackets, coats and pants in stock.

"We have almost everything except underwear," Ronika said.

In one used clothing store in Senen, some women looked busy selecting a pile of used bras.

Dodi and Ronika's store is one of the biggest used clothing stores in Senen.

"Our turnover can reach Rp 3 million a day," Dodi said.

However, he refused to disclose his monthly profit.

"We never actually counted it," Dodi said.

Ronika said most of their customers were from a middle-income background.

"We even have many sinetron (television series) stars coming here," she said.

With little effort to browse the clothes that are in piles or hung on racks, customers can find items in good condition and nice styles.

"We also have original Levi 501 jeans here somewhere," Dodi said adding that the price for an item was based on its condition.

"We usually sell the jeans for Rp 100,000. In (department) stores, they will charge you hundreds of thousands of rupiah," Dodi said.

A used clothes vendor in Glodok, Albert, 30, said used clothing vendors got the clothes from some wholesalers who bought the items from Singapore.

"Singaporeans bought the clothes from Japan and Korea and sell them here," Albert said.

Albert said vendors in Senen and Glodok bought the clothes in bales, which were wrapped with thick plastic sheets.

"One bale contains 100 kilograms of clothes," Albert said.

Albert said each bale had a code on it to identify the contents of the package.

"The codes tell us if the bale contains shirts, pants, jackets or something else," Albert said.

However, he said, the people in charge did not do a very good job on the codes.

"Actually, we don't exactly know what we are buying. It's like buying a pig in a poke," Albert said.

Glodok's used clothing stores do not have as many items as those in Senen do.

While the Post could find popular brand items like GAP, Polo and Wrangler on display in Senen stores on Tuesday, most Glodok stores only had women's shirts.

However, Albert said, customers could find many popular branded items when stores opened new bales.

Similar used clothing vendors can also be found at other cities in the country like Bandung in West Java and Medan in North Sumatra. (08)