City shopping malls are yet to start witnessing rush of Eid shoppers because of consecutive days of general strikes enforced by different groups.
Most shop owners have expressed their dismay over their poor sales after the seventh Ramadan. The shop owners at many city shopping malls were seen sitting almost idle all through the day waiting for customers while people of all income segments were seen visiting their nearby markets in the evening to do Eid shopping.
Rumana Tanzin, a housewife of Mirpur area, slammed political parties for calling hartal in the month of Ramadan and said they could avoid violence, strike and arson in this holy month.
She has said that they are failing to go for shopping during the strike at day amid risk of being victim of violence, so they go for shopping at night.
In the evening, Eid shoppers were seen in big shopping malls including Bashundhara City, New Market, Bailey Road Market, Eastern Plaza, Twin Towers, Mouchak Market, Karnaphuli Garden City, Chandni Chawk, Farmview Super Market, Eastern Plus, Bishal Center, Gulshan DCC Market, Rapa Plaza, Mohammadpur Super Market and Rajlakshmi Complex.
Similar pictures were seen at the shopping outlets of brand products like Aarong, Kay Kraft, Westecs, Dorji Bari, Banglar Mela, Anjans, Deshal, Deshi Dash, Texmart, Mela, Chaity, Sada Kalo, Menz Club and Infinity.
Shafique Topu, a government official of Motijheel area, was found annoyed as he could not start Eid shopping yet.
He said every year they started shopping from the first week of Ramadan but this year the whole week passed amid strike.
Kabir Haque, a salesman at Basundhara City, was unwilling to spare even a single customer who asked for a pair of earrings from his store on Wednesday and at last, he managed to sell the earrings.
He was unhappy over the scanty sales during Ramadan as most businessmen used to wait for Ramadan for a big sale in a year.
Kabir said they opened market in the evening avoiding the strike but few customers come to the market, though people gather here after iftar.
He said that every day they are to count Tk 4000- 5000 in losses because of the poor sale.
Raj Mahmud, another salesman of Muscut Palza, said the government should take initiative to stop strike to save businessmen.
Every year there were huge sales from the first day of Ramadan and the salesmen used to remain busy then but this year the situation is just the reverse, he said, adding that they got the lowest number of customers this Ramadan.
-With New Age input
