Thai zombie seller cashes in on threads of the dead

By Jiraporn Kuhakan

 

FILE PHOTO: Online clothes seller, Kanittha Thongnak, 32, applies zombie makeup before she starts livestreaming selling dead people's clothes in Bangkok, Thailand October 10, 2020. REUTERS/Jiraporn Kuhakan

 

PHETCHABUN, Thailand (Reuters) - Thai online retailer Kanittha Thongnak has captured a market of thousands by dressing up as a zombie to sell the clothes of dead people in sales streamed live on social media.

 

Kanittha, 32, saw her audience numbers surge after she started appearing in scary make-up, taking up to three hours to complete her zombie look before each late-night session, during which she tells buyers exactly how the owners of each item died.

 

"All the clothes belong to dead people who died from different causes," Kanittha told Reuters while preparing for her weekly Facebook Live session at her home in Phetchabun, northern Thailand.

 

"Since I started to wear scary make-up, the audience increased to five or six thousand."

 

The sales tap into a fascination among many Thais in horror films and ghosts and a common belief in spirits, with the zombie presentation generating interest in items sold at relatively low prices, including brand names.

 

Thai online retailer Kanittha has captured a market of thousands by dressing up as a zombie to sell the clothes of dead people in sales streamed live on social media.

 

Kanittha, who learned the make-up skills on the internet, sells clothing items for anything up to 100 baht ($3.2). She first got the idea while attending a funeral, where she saw clothes of the deceased burned, in accordance with tradition.

 

Kanittha sources the clothing from funeral directors after monks give prayers for the dead. She donates part of her income from the sales to Buddhist temples.

 

"I bought the clothes before, including the one I'm wearing now," said Anu Kaewsom, one of Kanittha's most loyal customers, who also buys for her husband.

 

"It's like normal clothes," she said, when asked how it felt to wear clothes of the dead.

 

Kanittha also sells handmade scary-themed items, including zombie dolls, and she finds some people are much keener than others.

 

"It depends on customers whether they want to buy the clothes or not. If they want to buy, they will buy it and they don't get scared," she said.

 

(Writing by Martin Petty, editing by Ed Osmond)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2020-10-28

 

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And  do the dead relatives agree  or even know about this?  and she says she buys them from the monks? so why does she donate some  of the money back to the temple? or is  this  just the "make it  look good"  part of the sales  spiel?

It's like normal clothes," she said, when asked how it felt to wear clothes of the dead.

Yes , that's because that's exactly what it is although a  blooming good  wash is  the first thing I'd  be doing  to any of them and of course BRAND NEW leather shoes  are made from animal skins,  again the skin of a dead animal, do they ever  think how  stupid  all of this death nonsense sounds?

This has to be one of the strangest stories I've read lately. She's certainly thinking out of the box. I bet this would work in other places because the world has so many people and there are certainly some who have odd fetishes. I just figured that most of these clothes would be in the market anyways. The goodwill shop is where a lot of them end up in the US.

They will sell there own grandma if the price is right in Thailand

One of the best online business ideas for a Thai that I have heard lately.

For some reason, selling via Facebook streams is a massive in Thailand. I think there is something in Thai culture whereby the decision to buy is based more on liking the seller than the product.

This girl has found an imaginative hook to sell a product as generic and easy-to-obtain as clothing, with a compelling story for why they are a bargain. As we can see from this news story, the sheer weirdness provides invaluable free marketing. Very, very clever.

 

As long as they didn't die in the clothes in some horrible way, it does not matter in the least.

Had a 100 year old house back in Oregon. Off hand wondering how many had died there over the years. This story is good one

"The Buddha told her that he could bring the child back to life if she could find white mustard seeds from a family where no one had died. She desperately went from house to house, but to her disappointment, she could not find a house that had not suffered the death of a family member."

don't guys buy pant's from ladies online .... I suppose it's similar just a different fantasy that gets them excited.   lol

4 hours ago, steven100 said:

don't guys buy pant's from ladies online .... I suppose it's similar just a different fantasy that gets them excited.   lol

Different, when they were last worn they were definitely still alive.

8 hours ago, gunderhill said:

And  do the dead relatives agree  or even know about this?  and she says she buys them from the monks? so why does she donate some  of the money back to the temple? or is  this  just the "make it  look good"  part of the sales  spiel?

It's like normal clothes," she said, when asked how it felt to wear clothes of the dead.

Yes , that's because that's exactly what it is although a  blooming good  wash is  the first thing I'd  be doing  to any of them and of course BRAND NEW leather shoes  are made from animal skins,  again the skin of a dead animal, do they ever  think how  stupid  all of this death nonsense sounds?

She doesn't buy the clothes from monks. The article clearly says she sources (buys) them from funeral directors after the monks have prayed. She then gives some of her profits to temples.

Personally, I think she is in a :-

 

Looks about as good as the usual Miss Thailands.

7 hours ago, donnacha said:

One of the best online business ideas for a Thai that I have heard lately.

For some reason, selling via Facebook streams is a massive in Thailand. I think there is something in Thai culture whereby the decision to buy is based more on liking the seller than the product.

This girl has found an imaginative hook to sell a product as generic and easy-to-obtain as clothing, with a compelling story for why they are a bargain. As we can see from this news story, the sheer weirdness provides invaluable free marketing. Very, very clever.

And it makes sense to recycle the old clothes. Good on her.

I know where there's a great haunted bridge for sale.....