JEDDAH: A market in Jeddah offers used clothes and other items, including foodstuff, at throwaway prices. However, the deal may be fraught with risks as the foodstuff could be out of date and the clothes infested with microbes.

“Many of the items, especially clothes, are the ones that once belonged to someone who has died. The other goods are given in “sadaqah” or charity and sold by the receivers for monetary gains,” local media reported on Saturday, quoting sources.

Most of those who purchase such items are residents, particularly Africans. There are also people belonging to other nationalities who fall prey to the cheap deals at this market.

Samir Al Salimi, one of the workers at the public market in Jeddah, said that most of the clothes sold here were charity or “sadaqah” or distributed by the relatives of sick people. But needy people who get these clothes resell them for money every week.

Suleiman Al Jabri, one of the workers in the nearby market, said most of the sellers are Africans. They bring these clothes through “sadaqah” or charity and most of these clothes belonged to people who died in road accidents. They get them from the relatives of the dead and come to sell them here, he said.

A security supervisor at a market in Jeddah said that the sellers are active on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays.

He said they have set up several committees with the secretariat to confiscate such clothes, but they somehow find their way back to the market.

Abdul Majeed Al Tantawi, an Arab resident, said people come here due to low prices. Some of the pieces are mostly unused. He purchases lots of pieces to send to his relatives back home as gifts after washing them.

Ahmad Omar, a buyer, said that he uses the pieces for work after washing them several times. He said that his mother purchases lots of items from there, including curtains, and sends them to relatives in an African country, where they wash them and use.

Mohammad Al Baqmi, spokesman of the Jeddah Secretariat, said that weekly inspections are carried out at these places and hundreds of items such as used clothes and expired foodstuff are destroyed.