Mexico families turning to yard sales for income, cheap goods
SAN LUIS RIO COLORADO, Son. – The recent appearance of
improvised patio sales set up by families to improve their
financial situation has not turned out to be much help in
this time of crisis.
Because the number of used clothing, electrical household
items and bric-a-brac stands is so large, the competition
between them does not leave good profits to the people who
start such a business.
Juana Cano de Valencia is one of the family entrepreneurs
who opened a stand in her home’s front yard on Calle Sexta.
She offers clothing and used shoes to her clients, the
majority of whom come from her own neighborhood.
In the past few weeks, her customers have started to
compete against her.
“The crisis has created a situation that you can see patio
sales on practically every corner. We only make enough to
get tortillas and a soda,” said the housewife, who is
flanked by two enormous dogs tied near her as crime
prevention.
She commented that it had been only three days since she
reopened her used clothing stand and has not sold more than
75 pesos (about $5.42). People were buying more at the
beginning of the year, but now, they only look and sift
through the clothing even though each piece only costs
between 5 and 25 pesos (about 36 cents to $1.80).
“There is a lot of competition. There are stands in front
of the houses on every corner. Just in this three-block
area, there are seven secondhand stands and people only
come, look, sift through the clothes and leave,” said Cano
while knitting a sweater.
When asked if people are more readily buying secondhand
articles now because there is a crisis, she said no, because
the crisis also prevents people from spending money on
secondhand items and those people who continue to have
buying power prefer to buy brand-new articles.
In other secondhand stands/patio sales, the owners chose
not to take part in this interview for fear of the Mexican
revenue authorities. Those officials are now auditing the
improvised stands setup by the San Luis residents to stretch
their low wages and compensate the nearly 30 percent price
increase basic food needs.