But they said they are having difficulty selling the items despite reducing their price by 50 percent or more.
A vendor who sells Ralph Lauren shirts every Saturday at the Susupe flea market said even though the prices range from a dollar to $10 per shirt or for a pair of shorts, they have yet to sell the stock they have had since 2008.
“These shirts and jackets have been here for two years now and we’re trying to sell them for $3,” he said.
A Ralph Lauren shirt for men costs about $50 to $150 when bought from DFS.
The vendor declined to talk about his current job or status, but he said he is a former garment worker and that he bought the clothes from “somebody who has access to the rejects.”
Five other vendors and retail owners also said that it was hard to sell “rejected but original clothing.”
“I usually run out of stock because of too many clients back in 2007 but now I only have about 20 loyal clients who buy from me every payday,” one of the vendors said.
Asked why her business is not doing good, she replied: “A lot have went home already because they no longer have jobs here while others prefer to buy at Chinese stores.”
Some of the clothes she sells were made by the island’s garment industry days and were sold to her by factory owners.
At their peak, the Saipan factories were earning over $1 billion a year, but with the liberalization of international trade rules in 2005, they could no longer compete with the cheaper apparel products made in Third World countries.
