Malaysia’s Biggest Thrift Event – Clothings

In these recent years, Malaysians had started chasing materialistic needs more than ever that most would even buy a simple T-Shirt which would normally cost $20.00 for $500.00 just because of a brand logo printed on the front of the shirt. That's a whooping 25 times more! Imagine that same individual would be able to purchase 25 different T-Shirt with different designs and they will be able to wear and reuse the same clothes for a year as compared to a $500.00 T-Shirt.

Brands give the image to people that if they are able to afford it, the consumer will not only earn bragging rights but also achieve a sense of pride. This had also further encouraged the millennials and post-millennials to be obsessed with certain branding.... and forgetting how to make a simple comparison between value and pricing. The millennials account for a good 30% of the total bankruptcy cases in Malaysia. When researched further, millennials were mostly bankrupt due to overuse of credit card to purchase luxury goods; branded handbag, branded clothing, latest smartphone, etc.

This event here focuses on high quality used clothing imported from Japan at a really affordable price of below $5.00 for most - to set as a wake up reminder that we can always reuse and recycle good quality products around us... and it doesn't always have to be branded! Thrift events had never really been organised in Malaysia due to the above reason but if we are able to show them how affordable yet good quality items that they can actually have while saving those extra pennies for travel, I am sure we will be able to make a long term change not only for Malaysia but slowly to other regions of South East Asia as well as other regions of the world.

The event is aimed to attract a high number of visitor - Around 100,000 people expected minimum.

Venue rental/day : USD 7,200 x 2 days = USD 14,400

Advertising costs : USD 3,000 (multiple channels)

46,000 kilograms of used clothing (approx 138,000 pieces of clothing) : USD 16,400 approx. + USD 1,800 tax = USD 18,120

Manpower on event : 60 pax x USD 25/person x 2 days = USD 3,000

Other equipment costs (hangers, tags, steaming, plastic bags for consumers) : USD 5,000

Warehouse rental : USD 1,000/day * 5 days before setting up

Outsource event company for set up and teardown : USD 10,000

POS Set Up (rental) : USD 2,000 (5 machines)

Cashiers : 5 pax x USD 25/person x 2 days = USD 250

Printing costs : USD 1,000

Price tagging crew : 65 crew/day x 3 days x USD 20/person = USD 3,900

Clean up crew : 50pax/dayx USD 20/person = USD 1,000

Misc costs : USD 10,000

Total estimated cost : USD 76,760