Gettin By - Hawking T-Shirts

This blog post is part of a larger series called 'Gettin' By', which profiles petty traders, street sellers, vendors and other members of the informal market who are part of the reported 85% of Liberians without jobs.

Click on the 'Gettin' By' search term to see past articles, or read on.

Profession: Selling T-Shirts

Location: Strategically placed wheelbarrows; roving wheelbarrows; roving sellers with
hangers of shirts

How it works:

There are a lot of bizarre things about the supply chains in this country. I don't know if I actually fully understand the t-shirt supply chain - mainly due to heavily conflicting reports - but this is what I do know.

T-shirts in Liberia largely come from the US. Most are donated, but it is not abundantly clear to me through what means. Certainly, a lot of the shirts that end up here en masse are manufacture rejects that either get donated by the companies, or more likely, sold on the little-known international used t-shirt market.

But, for the majority of t-shirts that read anything from "Auntie Louise's XXXLenent 50th" to "Waco Texas Swim Club" to homemade renditions of "Rock Out With Your Cock
Out" (seen yesterday on an old woman, and me... without a camera! shhheeeeet...) they are donations from individuals.

Now here is where I am most unclear. One friend told me that all T-shirts from the US route through East Africa; Dar es Salaam and Nairobi to be specific. I personally have a hard time believing this (look at a map), but their insistence on the matter was based in experience, so I'll just say that.

Another version of the story is that these are gathered through t-shirt drives and other auspices of 'giving' to people who need them, and then whoever forks out the change to fill the sea cans (about 12 G to ship from US) takes a cut at the port.

Yet another version has Lebanese and other merchants buying bulk shirts from places like Goodwill at pretty low prices, fronting the shipping cross, and making it all up on this end.

More pessimistic versions argue that co opted aid missions and misappropriations of unguarded, low-value goods while in ports become too enticing for longshoremen et al to bear (yo: watch The Wire season two if you don't think that is a possibility).

Anyways, I think its mainly the middle two options, with perhaps a touch of the first and healthy dab of the last option. If anyone wants to pay me to do a real article on this subject, I will expend much more time and effort and solve the supply riddle.

Moving on to easier empirics.

Sea cans on the back of trailers deliver the t-shirts to wholesalers in vaccuum packed bags labeled 'boys sports' or 'women t's.' They cost $ 100 US for about a 3 foot cube. Although sometimes the trucks serve as the wholesalers, just parking themselves in Waterside market, and selling to whoever crowds the truck.

These wholesalers are exclusively Lebanese who have connections in the port. They expect the payments in USD, even though their shirt sellers receive all payments in LD (note: this links back to the post on Changing Money, and how the money cutting works)

So Liberian sellers get the bundles, unpack them, and fill up wheelbarrows, either splitting the packs, or going it solo: a relatively big investment for petty traders.

The packs vary, but for adult sized t's there tends to be about 70 - 100 per 'bushel'- the shirts are also sorted by quality, and the higher quality ones have less per cube. Of course, there is no recourse if you receive less, or if quality does not match expectations, its just a typical 'hope I don't screwed on this one'.

So, shirts can be had for as low as 70 LD in the city centre ($ 1 US), but most tend to fall between $ 90 - 150 LD ($US 1.40 - $ 2.10). For selling a cube, vendors try to make $ 10 - 15. This is not usually possible in a day, but sellers willing to 'hel you wih speciah price my man!' take the route of selling more for lower price to add up the day. So, they'll roll a barrow into a crowded place and yell "no more 150, pay 90," reveling in the ensuing buying frenzy.

Most shirt vendors say they are happy to clear $ 500 - 600 LD, or 7 - 8 bucks, though many make much less.

As usual, 'wafer thin margins'. (nate...)

Variables: New city laws that discourage petty trading, 'the rai-in!', getting spoiled shirts,

Price Point Comparison:

if you live in Paynesville, Bardnersville or Stephen Tolbert estates and sell in town - which many do - it costs $ 40 LD for transport each way, 80 LD per day; more than 1/8 of your wages.