Businesses struggling to make ends meet

Winter is the favourite season among many people, particularly students and youngsters, in Bangladesh for a number of reasons that they enjoy at the end of the year. One of the enjoyable occasions can be annual sports at schools and colleges, tournaments or the raffle draw in picnics, and with these, comes the prizes that people love.

Crests are one of the most popular items given as awards in such competitions, along with other souvenirs like mugs, key rings and diaries.

From children to adults, everyone likes getting such gift items and souvenirs as mementoes. That’s why the tradition has survived for a long time. Thanks to modern and automated machinery, this business has been thriving for years, until the Covid-19 pandemic hit Bangladesh.

For people of Dhaka city, whenever they think about buying crests and any type of souvenirs or gifts, the place that easily pops up in their minds is the Dhaka University Market, commonly known as Kataban souvenir market, in the Kataban area.

Since the Liberation War, the souvenir businesses anchored themselves at this market at Kataban along with the adjacent Nilkhet book market and Gausul Azam Super Market.

There are at least 100 small businesses that make and sell these items. However, many of them were forced to shut down during the pandemic. Although the Covid situation has improved in Dhaka and elsewhere, most of the souvenir businesses are yet to get back up on their feet. Many hope the situation will get better next year.

Rabbi is one of them who had a business of engraving custom wooden crests, key rings, frames and other wooden materials with laser machine alongside custom printing on mugs and glass.

During the Covid lockdown, he could not pay rent or his employees. He had to close shop and started working in another to make ends meet.

“I have been trying to start over again but I’m concerned about the prices of raw materials that have doubled in recent times. I guess I’ll have to wait a little longer to see if they drop,” he told The Business Post.

Md Momin has been working at New Star Enterprise at Kataban for four years. When he started working here, hundreds of customers used to come to this market daily. Now he mostly sits idle in the shop, he said.

“In the past, we couldn’t even take lunch breaks on time because of the workload during winter. And now, we can barely get the money for lunch as it’s become harder to keep the business going amidst price hikes and the dwindling number of customers,” Momin added.

Al Amin Morol, a representative of a volunteer organisation, came from Kamrangirchar to a shop named City Plus at Kataban to buy engraved key rings to give blood donors as gifts during a blood donation campaign. “Every year, we used to give pens, key rings and diaries as gifts. This year, however, we are only giving key rings due to budget cuts. These souvenirs are luxuries when people can barely afford food,” he said.

Meanwhile, Muhsin Printing at the Gausul Azam Super Market, which makes custom diaries, has lost a huge number of customers in recent times after the price of paper nearly doubled within months. Talking to The Business post, a worker at the shop said, “We try to keep the cost as low as we can but it’s hard to keep up since everything became costlier. Sometimes we suffer losses and sometimes we make a little money. We are barely holding on while hoping for the best.”

During winter, sports and tournaments take place everywhere and crests — made of plastic, glass, metal or wood — are usually the top choice for the organisers to give out as awards.

With the FIFA World Cup 2022 underway and the Covid situation improving, sellers had expected to recover from their losses at the end of this year but sales are yet to pick up.

Galaxy One is one such shop that makes crests and plates with various materials. One of its workers, Rashed said that prices of everything, from metal to wood, have doubled.

“And that’s hurting the business. We are not earning enough and are struggling to even buy our daily groceries,” he added frustratingly.