Mizanur Rahman
The number of temporary salespersons, recruited by different fashion houses ahead of Eid-ul-Fitr, has declined sharply this year due to a surge in Covid-19 infection.
Mohammad Ashraful Alam, Chief Operating Officer of Aarong, the largest fashion and home decor brand, told The Business Post that they recruited a fewer number of temporary salespersons this year than any other years.
He, however, refused to disclose the exact number of the manpower recruited for their showrooms.
Aarong, owned by non-profit development agency BRAC, currently operates 21 outlets in nine Bangladeshi metropolitan cities.
Fashion house Le Reve has 18 stores and they used to recruit at least 130 temporary salespersons for Eid sale.
Apu Chatry, online marketing in charge of Le Reve, said that they recruited only 45 salespersons amid the Eid sale.
“Apart from our permanent employees, we need six employees for each showroom. But we had to recruit a small number of employees due to business situation,” said Chatry.
Golam Mostafa, Sales and Operation Manager of fashion house Rang, which has 27 showrooms, said their temporary salesperson recruitment decreased by two-third this year.
Sadakalo has seven outlets in Dhaka and they also recruited small number of temporary salespersons for the Eid-ul-Fitr market.
Nasim Ahmed, IT officer of Sadakalo said they appointed only 20 per cent temporary salespersons for their outlets.
Umesh Shaha, a senior officer of reputed fashion brand Deshal told The Business Post that they had room for appointing at least 40 salespersons for seven of their showrooms.
But the authorities appointed only 10 salespersons this year, he said.
Dhaka Metropolitan Police allowed the shopping malls and the markets in Dhaka to remain open until 9:00pm maintaining the health guidelines.
The Cabinet Division earlier on April 23 issued a circular asking the shops and markets to remain open from 10:00am to 5:00pm. The duration of the shopping hour was later extended until 8:00pm across the country.
Authorities imposed a lockdown in Bangladesh on April 5 to stop the spread of Covid-19 infection and extended the measure several times.
The cabinet secretary on Monday informed that the nationwide lockdown would be further extended until May 16.
