Eid shopping gets momentum
Noman Mosharef :
With the Eid-ul-Fitr, the largest religious festival of the Muslim community, is approaching, the people from every corner of society rushing to the markets, shopping malls and other places like footpaths for buying their choice clothes.
Apart from the city dwellers, shopping crazy people from adjacent districts like Narayanganj and Gazipur, even those from far flung areas of adjacent districts like Cumilla, Feni and Mymensingh are crowding famous shopping malls for buying world class brand dresses.
While visiting different shopping malls including Bashundhara City and Jamuna Future Park on Thursday night, this correspondent found that the shopping malls were crowded with customers till midnight.
On the other hand, the middle and lower middle income group people are also gathering at comparatively cheap markets like New market and others.
All major shopping malls in the city have been adorned with colorful lights while buildings and roads in different areas have been illuminated with red, blue, and green decorative lighting. Sales persons are passing busy time handling the rush of customers, especially in the stores of clothes and shoes.
Customers, from a diverse range of backgrounds, are buying for their desired Eid items, including kids wear, Punjabis, sarees, three-pieces and accessories.
Salespersons of different brand shops, including Aarong, Ecstasy, Yellow, Cat’s Eye, Sailor, Grameen UNIQLO, Deshi Dosh, Richman, Infinity, Gentle Park, Easy and Dorji Bari were seen busy dealing with the shoppers.
They expressed their satisfaction over the improved law and order situation in the city particularly at surroundings of important market places. They are also happy to have almost uninterrupted power supply during the month of Ramadan and Eid shopping period.
Eid shoppers, especially those who prefer brand shops, have said that they have become used to doing their Eid shopping from malls like Bashundhara City and Jamuna Future Park as all the brand shops have their outlets there.
“I always buy dresses from brand shops. If I go to a non-brand shop, sellers will ask for a price of a product five times higher than it should be.
They are irrational and behave harshly. On the other hand, if I purchase clothes from brand shops, I don’t need to bargain. That’s why I prefer big shopping malls as no other mall can offer more quality brand shops than this,” said Ahmed Kamal, a senior executive of a corporate company, while shopping from an outlet.
Ratul, a salesman of a brand shop of the Bashundhara City, said most of the Eid shoppers who buy clothes from Bashundhara City Shopping Complex are sophisticated.
“They put more emphasis on product quality than price. Considering their taste and preferences we have set up our outlets,” he added.
Tahmina Akter, a dweller of Rampura area, came to the Bashundhara City with her husband and daughter to buy a dress for her eight-year old daughter.
“We want to buy a Pakistani dress for my daughter. In Bashundhara City, many shops are selling high quality Pakistani dresses. We already visited some shops. We can’t select a dress for my baby yet. But, within a short time, we can select as their collection is huge,” she added.
Tahmina also expressed her satisfaction as she along with her family members could eat iftar at the food court of the shopping mall without any hassle.
Hailing from Feni, Rasheduzaman came to Dhaka for a business purpose. He was visiting the mall to buy a shirt for his son and a Panjabi for his father.
While talking to the media, he said, “I came to Dhaka to complete a business deal. Upon completion of my task, I came here to buy Eid dresses for my father and son.”
Meanwhile, it was seen that members of the law enforcement were active in front of shopping malls to ensure the safety of people who came to shops in the malls. Security is being monitored from the information and service center booths.