Malls packed in Eid sale bonanza

The city centres continue to embrace a bevy of shoppers who are now on a shopping spree ahead of the Eid ul-Fitr – the largest festival of the Muslims community.

A wide range of clientele of all walks of life are converging on a variety of shopping arcades across the city in droves to purchase their chosen items, i.e. dresses, cosmetics and the like.

Bashundhara Shopping Complex, Jamuna Future Park, Dhaka New Market, Gausia Market and Mouchak Market are literally abuzz with the presence of customers.

During a visit to the city shopping malls, The Business Post found that both shoppers and shop owners are in a win-win situation, with one making a big sale and other getting hold of their chosen items.

“We are, however, making a bonanza sale after lackluster two years. We hope to recover the earlier losses incurred due to the pandemic,” said traders.

“The recent row between the businessmen at the New Market and the Dhaka College students halted trade to a little extent, but now it is back in the game.”

Mohammad Sharif, owner of Sharif Brothers at Gausia Market, said they are selling various local products; of them, the demand for kids wear has increased and sales have remarkably gone up.”

“I am here to buy some necessary clothes for my children and my cousins as well. The current situation in this area is better than before and everything seems normal once again,” said Lamia Nusrat, a customer who came to the New Market for shopping.

Traders at Bashundhara City Shopping Complex echoed the same as their peer groups.

They said the quest for panjabi, pajama, kurta, saree, fatua, salwar kameez, shirt, pant, polo shirt, T-shirt, bag and shoe is at its peak.

It was also found that many local fashion houses at various malls are offering discounts ranging between 5 per cent and 30 per cent on various products for this season to boost their sales too.

Kamrul Hasan Shahi, proprietor of Marvel Heroes, said: “Our sales volume has risen making us hopeful for bright days ahead as we experienced a low sale in the last two consecutive Eid festivals due to the pandemic.”

Salespersons at different local brand shops, including Cat’s Eye, UNIQLO, Aarong, Ecstasy, Yellow, Dorji Bari, Sailor, Richman, Infinity, Gentle Park, Easy and others, were seen busy serving their clientele of different age groups.

Many children along with their parents are visiting showrooms to buy clothes adding to the delight of shopping.

On the other hand, many low- and middle-income groups are also going to New Market, Chandrima, Chandni Chalk, Gawsia and some makeshift shops on roadside to buy their necessary items.

Kamrul Islam, who sells clothes on the footpath opposite Dhaka College, said: “We are having a huge crowd of shoppers this year compared to the last two consecutive Eid occasions.”

“Our sales were very low during the pandemic but now we are getting a very positive response from shoppers.”

Many a trader said as the pandemic is dying down, shoppers’ presence has increased in the city malls.

The shoppers, however, are complaining of hike in prices of several products.

In this context Shahriar Alam said: “This year the price is higher than that in the last two years as the demand has gone up.”

However, a large number of female customers are mostly showing up at the shops selling cosmetics, artificial jewelry, makeup items and other essentials giving a damn to the hike in prices.