School uniform sales slump as parents tighten their belts
School uniform sales slump as parents tighten their belts
Not as many students or their parents are flocking to markets in Vientiane to purchase new school uniforms ahead of the new school year as is normally the case.
Many vendors who sell the uniforms have expressed disappointment over their sales volumes this year due to lower purchasing power among the current fiscal contraction.
Meanwhile many schools have continued on with the use of their old school uniforms, creating difficulties for vendors to sell their goods.
They said that parents were seen to be more careful when it came to purchasing school uniforms and education related materials for their children, which of course affected vendors’ sales.
Economic growth in Laos is projected to slow down from 8 percent to 7.5 percent this year as the government tightens its belt, one of the main causes causing purchasing power to decline in comparison to recent years.
Another factor causing declining sales of school uniforms at local markets is the fact that many schools, in particular the private ones, are offering school uniforms for sale to their students at more reasonable rates than they previously did.
A vendor at Thatluang Market, Ms Nui Dlaphanh, was one of numerous traders who were disappointed with the falling uniform sales this year.
She told Vientiane Times yesterday that over the past years she started to sell school uniforms in early August and she could sell them very well until the middle of September.
However this year she thinks she will not be able to sell nearly as many because some schools produced the uniforms for their students themselves while many students are reusing last year’s uniforms.
“The prices of all school uniforms at my stall are still the same as last year,” Ms Nui said
“I have bought the good quality small ones for 20,000 kip and am selling them for 25,000 kip. Meanwhile the big ones I bought for 45,000 kip and sell for 50,000 kip. The extra large s I sell for 55,000 or 60,000 kip because I have to order them in specially.”
However, Ms Nui is comforted by the fact she will not lose any capital because school uniforms can be kept for a long time and she can sell them when they go out of season or wait until next year comes around.
On the other hand, she can also return any unsold school uniforms to the factory which produced them if she wishes.
Another vendor, Ms Ter Thammavong, who sells uniforms at Khuadin Market said that there had been many people coming to the market recently, especially students, but there were not many people coming to buy uniforms.
She asked some of her customers why they haven’t bought any school uniforms this year and they said that it was because their parents’ salaries hadn’t come yet so they would have to buy them later on.
vientiane times
