City corners buzz with last-minute shoppers

With Eid-ul-Fitr, one of the two great Muslim festivals, set for tomorrow or the day after, and Durga Puja, the major Hindu festival, only days away, the last-minute shopping spree seemed to have reached its zenith in the city markets yesterday.
Braving the scorching late-Sharat Bhadra sun after drizzle over the last few days whipped up by a low in the Bay of Bengal, shoppers rushed for buying new clothes and other fancy items for their near and dear ones throughout the day and also late into the night.
Although a good number of people had already left the city to celebrate the Eid with kith and kin in their ancestral homes, there was no dearth of customers in the shops of capital.
Most of the Eid shoppers were found thronging the shoe outlets at New Market and Elephant Road and other places, while the rush for small items and gift objects was seen mostly at Shahbagh Aziz Supermarket.
Many people from the well-off sections of society were seen at Aziz Supermarket at Shahbagh and other fixed-price shops for purchasing rare collection of gift items and handicraft products.
Tomal, owner of K-craft at Aziz Supermarket, told The Independent that they started the outlet of rare collections of fashionable and artistic items as well as readymade garments a few days back. “Buyers don’t know about our collection of items. We are selling handicraft objects and other fancy items at fixed price. The shoppers who come here for buying different items do not go back without buying something because our collection is good and we sell them at reasonable prices,” he claimed.
Besides, there are a number of shops at the market such as Bokul Craft, Zahid Craft, Deshal, Dhakdhol, Megh and others, where there are a wide range of collection of embroidered Punjabi, boutique saris, ‘fatua’, three-pieces, vests, T-shirts etc.
On the other hand, a huge number people were seen rushing to shops at Elephant Road for purchasing shoes to match their festival clothes bought earlier.
Salesmen at different shoe shops at the market said that the male consumers were mainly choosing flat-hill shoes, ‘Kolapuri’ and ‘Davdas’ sandals, ‘Nagra’ shoes and China-made sandals this year as their choice for Eid. One pair of these shoes is selling between Tk 6,00 and Tk 2,000.The male customers have also been choosing both country and foreign brands of shoes to make their Eid festival more colourful. The price of brand shoes was varying from Tk 1,000 to Tk 10,000 a pair. The price of a pair of shoes manufactured by local shoemakers cost between Tk 8,00 and Tk 7,000.
The female consumers are showing interest in buying coloured and designed sandals with marble and stone settings. The price range of a pair of such sandals was between Tk 4,00 and Tk 10,000, according to the sales manger of the Palace Shoes House.
He also said that the sale was good this year compared to that of the previous year. “Our selling increased in the last couple of days. I hope it would continue until the night of sighting the Shawal moon,” he added.
Zakir Hossain, a shoe shop owner at Elephant Road, told The Independent yesterday that compared to the previous year, prices of shoes shot up by 20 to 25 per cent this year following price hike of essential commodities and the VAT system.
At Longla, one of the exclusive shops for Punjabis and Pajamas at Science Laboratory intersection, a rush of buyers was witnessed yesterday. Ridoy (not his real name), a manager of Longla, said they had displayed a wide range of collection of fashionable Punjabis this year. He told this correspondent that the sale was good this year and there was a craze among young customers to buy cotton Punjabis this year. The embroidered Punjabis cost between Taka 2,000 and Taka 8,000 a piece, he added. 
But the buyers claimed that the prices of all kinds of dresses, shoes, sandals and other items have marked a sharp rise in comparison to the previous year’s.
Rush of buyers also was seen at the city kitchen markets for purchasing chickens, spices, vermicelli, sweets and other raw materials for special dishes.

Courtesy of The Independent