Clothing sellers are bracing for increased demand for black clothing as the mourning period for His Majesty the King officially begins.
Crowds of people flocked to Pratunam, one of Thailand's largest wholesale clothing markets, after the government announced a national holiday on Friday.
FM91 traffic police radio reported congestion on Friday morning due to the large number of vendors buying black clothes, causing traffic jams towards Uruphong intersection.
Phetchaburi Soi 21 was unusually crowded in the afternoon, with black clothing -- especially polo shirts -- already sold out in some stores.
Workers delivering goods to the vendors in the area were seen pushing carts stacked with black and white clothing. A vendor who usually sells eight different colours of knitted blouses said he had ordered more black blouses to respond to the huge demand.
Rattana Tima, who usually sells pastel-coloured blouses at the air-conditioned Platinum Fashion Mall, now has several black ones on display, sold for 250-990 baht, and says that sales have been even better than on normal days.
Several stores reported no sales of other colours of clothing apart from black and white.
"This is the first [non-black or white] one I've sold today," said Wanida Tongprasertkul as a foreign customer bought a red blouse.
Ms Wanida usually sells only one type of black blouse, but on Friday she was selling 20-30 types, ranging from 150 baht for a T-shirt to 1,000 baht for chiffon blouses. She gets both retail and wholesale customers, and demand is so high that she is selling better than on other days.
The government has declared a one-year mourning period and asked that state officials wear appropriate clothing for mourning. This includes black or white shirts for men and all-black clothing for women.
Although the rest of the public is not strictly required to do the same, several companies have issued statements requesting their employees to wear mourning clothing.
The sudden surge in demand, however, has caused some vendors to increase the prices of black clothing, prompting the central commission on prices of goods and services on Friday to issue a statement forbidding vendors to sell mourning clothes "at an inappropriate price" and requiring them to openly display prices.
Those who violate the rules face a prison term of not more than seven years and/or a fine of not exceeding 140,000 baht. If the seller does not display prices or sells a product not according to the price displayed, they face a fine of not more than 10,000 baht, according to the Price of Goods and Services Act.
When Tak (not his real name) passed a clothing store near Kasetsart University on Friday morning, he saw polo shirts were priced at 100 baht.
By noon, the price had been raised to 250-300 baht and the colours black, white and dark grey were all sold out. The seller told him to come again on Monday and asked him if he wanted to pre-order. "She said we weren't allowed to buy more than five per person due to the shortage," said the 30-year-old government official, who has no black shirts.
"So I decided not to buy new ones because I am against people raising prices during the mourning period. I already have three white shirts, plus it's too hot to wear black every day."
Tailor Pakornchai Sananthong, 40, rushed to the Suksawat area of Bangkok to buy rolls of black fabric but returned home empty-handed.
"I didn't pre-order black shirts as I was afraid it would be bad luck for the King," Mr Pakornchai explained. "In fact, I ordered many yellow shirts to get ready for his birthday on Dec 5. Now I have to cancel the order."
Mr Pakornchai also said he felt uncomfortable about making money from the King's death.
"It doesn't sound right to me," he said. "Now my family and I are grieving. I plan to stop working for a while until we all feel better."
