Eid shopping at roadside makeshift shops, where mostly the lower and middle-income group people go, in the capital did not gain momentum till Friday as most of the blue-collar and pink-collar workers were yet to get their festival allowances, with about 18 days left for Eid-ul Fitr.
Footpath vendors and other people concerned have also ascribed this low-key shopping trend to the price spirals that led the fixed-income group people to rein in their shopping spree.
With Eid around the corner, the streets in Dhaka become abuzz with people while vendors and traders woo their buyers with their goods.
A large number of makeshift shops have already sprung up on the pavements of the city on the occasion of Eid while the vendors have already showcased new items in their makeshift shops targeting Eid shoppers.
Every year before Eid, the upper class buyers crowd the big shopping centers and malls located in the city’s posh areas while the low-income group people throng the footpath shops to purchase their desired items.
This year, items ranging from pajama-punjabi, shirt, T-shirt, sari, salwar, kameez to readymade garments for children have showcased in the footpaths’ shops.
Shoes, tupi, attar and other essential items for gents as well as children have also been showcased ahead of Eid-ul Fitr, the biggest festival of Muslim community.
As approached, a vendor selling garment items for the children at a roadside makeshift shop at Gulisthan expressed dissatisfaction with the sales at his shop.
‘The business is very dull. I did a very good business last year,’ the vendor, Mohammad Ali, said.
‘You see, how a fixed-income group people can afford to do Eid shopping if the price of rice shoots up to Tk 48 per kilogram,’ he argued.
‘We could not run our business in the last couple of the days because of rain,’ he said. ‘Furthermore, we are to go through different kinds of difficulties in running the business on the footpath.’
Prices of different varieties of cloths, particularly cotton, tissue, silk and synthetic, have registered a sharp rise.
‘A shirt is being sold at Tk 180 to Tk 200 whereas we sold the same shirt at Tk 120 last year,’ said Zobbar Ali selling shirts at his makeshift shop on an Indira Road footpath at Farmgate.
However, some people were seen bargaining with the shopkeepers while many were seen buying new notes to give them to the kids on the occasion of Eid.
The buyers, mostly middle income people, are found moving from shop to shop on the footpath, asking prices of goods to find.
While talking to New Age, Shariful Islam, a student who was looking for a shirt at footpath shops, said he preferred looking around the makeshift shops to buy a shirt for himself at a lower price.
Most shop owners, meanwhile, expected an increase in sales after 20th Ramadan.
A vendor at a roadside shop at Paltan said they were likely to make a brisk business one week before Eid as most of the people would get money by the time.
-With New Age input
