Argentina is facing its worst economic crisis in decades with 143% inflation, forcing its residents to turn to second-hand clothing markets, Reuters reports.
"You can't just go to the mall and buy something you like as you did before. Today prices are unthinkable," said Aylen Chiclana, a 22-year-old student in Buenos Aires.
New jeans in the country are now double the price from a year ago. Many are now turning to clothing fairs where people people both sell and buy used clothing. For some, the means of that extra income is necessary.
62-year-old semi-retired teacher Beatriz Lauricio said she and her husband who works for a bus company sell their old clothing at a fair “out of daily necessity” and when it was cancelled one weekend their finances “collapsed.”
"We're middle class, lower middle class I would say. We have our jobs but we need to come to the fair,” she said. "We're not doing this as a little extra so we can go on vacation to Brazil.”
An organizer of one of the fairs, María Silvina Perasso, said that people can buy clothes for “5 percent or 10 percent of the value that comes from a store” this way.
Two-fifths of Argentinians currently live in poverty and a recession is on the brink. The country’s economy minister, Sergio Massa, who is also running for president, is partly at fault for his failure to control or combat rising prices. His opponent, radical outsider and libertarian Javier Milei is projected to win in Argentina’s presidential election runoff next Sunday.
