The Pop Up Tailor

There she is and then, there she’s not

So many businesses are going virtual these days. The biggest store in the world is now Amazon. It seems like bricks and mortar are not always necessary anymore in order to supply stuff and services to customers. But some services do require someone with a machine to sit in a place and do the work. For example, if you need to get your pants shortened or the hem of your dressed adjusted, Amazon will not be able to do that. You will need to go to a tailor, assuming that you can’t do the job yourself.

But what if the tailor wants to run a virtual business with no store front. How could that be done? There is an older lady who every so often – maybe once a week – sets up her sewing machine on the sidewalk of Soi 42, a major street near where I live. She stays for the day blocking the sidewalk, seems to have a number of clients and then disappears, I suspect, to go to another of her regular streets with their nearby clients. Even though she blocks the sidewalk, she seems to attract friendly and smiling faces. No one seems to mind, I guess because she has become a fixture in the neighbourhood. Also, Bangkok sidewalks are generally so messed up that one more inconvenience is no big deal.

This lady has been setting up shop on this sidewalk for a day here and a day there for many years. Maybe she gets calls, arranges her appointments accordingly and turns up on the appropriate sidewalk when needed. Maybe she has a website.  At night, she attaches a flashlight to a hat that she wears so she can see what she’s doing. Her sewing machine is one of those foot operated versions that many of our parents and grandparents used to have. She does not appear to need electrical hookups.

Her whole setup fits into a cart which I guess she moves from place to place, although I have never seen her come or go. I suppose she moves from sidewalk to sidewalk late at night.  I don’t know if she needs a permit but I do know that the police have never bothered her as she has been coming to this spot for years.  I also always see clients sitting with her or talking to her, so I am thinking that she has a pretty consistent clientele.

This lady has figured out how to run a traditional bricks and mortar business in a virtual and flexible manner. She clearly has been successful enough to stay in business for years.

She is a tailor on wheels – a pop up tailor – turning up where and when needed.