Challenge and Strategies of Selected Ukay-Ukay Owners on Handling Their Clothes Stores in Gapan City, Nueva Ecija

Abstract

Ukay-Ukay is a boutique that sells used or second-hand clothing, purses, and other items at rock-bottom costs. With this, this study’s objective is to determine the challenges encountered by the respondents and the business strategies and motivation they used to overcome their ukay-ukay business in Gapan City, Nueva Ecija. The researchers applied a phenomenological research approach in this study; a total of eight ukay-ukay owners were selected from Gapan City, Nueva Ecija, using purposive sampling. A semi-structured interview and audio recording were used to collect data from the respondents. The challenges that most respondents experienced were (1) having damaged clothes, which is not avoidable in the ukay-ukay business, and (2) having lots of competitors and ruining others' reputations for their own sake.

On the other hand, most respondents revealed that their strategy to keep their business operation is all about sales talk to convince the customers. Finally, most respondents revealed that their family is the number one motivation to overcome their challenges and keep going in the world of ukay-ukay business. In conclusion, having an ukay-ukay business tends to have joint issues with their product, such as (1) having damaged clothes, which is unavoidable in having this kind of business, and (2) high competitors, and those who will ruin someone’s reputation. While in strategy, Ukay-ukay owners tend to do sales talking with their customers to encourage them to buy their product. Then, the ukay-ukay owners used their families to motivate them to continue their business.