'Mustafa Centre' opens outlet at Bashundhara City mall

---

Badrul Ahsan Hundreds of shop owners at Bashundhara City Shopping Mall are facing tough competition after the entry of the India based international chain shop 'Mustafa Centre' into the country. Authentic sources at the Mustafa Centre said that huge collections of internationally reputed branded items at reasonable prices and one stop services helped them to lure customers to their outlet. Shopkeepers said that their daily sales have drastically fallen after installation of the chain shop in the market on December 12, 2012. They claimed that glittery of foreign products of the new shop faded glaze of local produces. As a result, 2,327 shop owners and thousands of staffs and their dependents are now facing a threat to their livelihood. Talking to the Financial Express, both shoppers and traders said that arrival of such type of chain shop would benefit the country nothing rather than siphoning off a substantial amount of hard earned foreign currencies because almost cent per cent products that the chain shop sells are of foreign made. "Indian chain shop 'Mustafa Centre' with outlet at Bashundhara City shopping mall is drawing attention of a large number of customers posing serious threat to business of hundreds of other shops there," a leader of Bashundhara City Shop Owners Association told the FE preferring anonymity. He also said that their daily sales have fallen by over fifty per cent after opening of the shop in the market. Businesses, mainly that of readymade garment, cosmetics, shoes, toys and winter clothes are the worst victims of the situation, he added. Mustafa Center has started its operation in Bangladesh from December 12, 2012 with an initial investment of Tk 2.0 billion. Company sources said that the size of investment would be increased gradually. In charge of INFINITY Mega Mall at Bashundhara City told the FE that their daily sales were around Tk 1.0 million till December 12, but the sales have now come down to only around 0.4 to 0.5 million. "We used to serve a huge number of sophisticated customers every day before operation of Mustafa Centre here, but now our sales girls and boys are passing idle time due to a fall in sales," he added. Kamal U Ahmed, proprietor of TRAX shoes, a medium -sized shop said that comparatively smaller and medium- sized shops and shops with small capital would be the ultimate sufferers in the long run. "We used to sale shoes of over one lakh taka per day till arrival of Mustafa Centre, but now our sales have come down to 30,000 to 40,000 taka a day," Ahmed added. Ruhul Amin, Showroom in charge of WESTECS, an exclusive fashion house in the market said that they are planning to bring changes in their business strategy for sustainability. "Most of our products are designed and made by our own people. So we strongly believe that the new strategic policy of our company would help us regain our business soon," Amin added. Besides, Jewellers also expressed their grave concern over the arrival of the Indian company and said that the arrival of Indian jewellery items in Bangladesh may destroy local industry as finished Indian ornaments are finer than that of Bangladeshi ones. Mustafa Centre is in the process of opening jewellery shop on 5th and 6th floor of the market. To this effect the company has already bought a number of existing showrooms at high prices in the meantime and is also trying to buy more shops soon, company sources said. However, head of accounts and administration of Mustafa Centre, Mohibul Haq told the FE that internationally reputed image of Mustafa Centre, widest space, huge collections of world's reputed products and reasonable prices have helped them attract the customers. "We sold products worth Tk 0.5 million on the first day of operation in Bangladesh but now it rose to around Tk2.0 million per day which proves that the customers trust the company," Haq added. Rejwana Siddiq, a shopper at the shopping mall expressing her satisfaction over huge collections of Mustafa Centre said that there are thousands of products in one shop which helped her take decision easily and prices of the products are also reasonable. "I used to collect most of my cosmetics and some other items through my relatives residing abroad, but now I am happy for getting available products at Mustafa Centre which would surely reduce reliance on those of my relatives," Rejwana added. "Moreover, whatever reputed products we get in other shops are either high priced or sometimes counterfeit." "Besides, whatever foreign items we would find in local shops are high in prices and in some cases substandard. But we can rely on the products of Mustafa Centre due to their years of reputation and prices are also less than other outlets." However, Mohibul Haq said that they have a target to raise their sales up to 5.0 million every day. On a visit to Mustafa Centre in Bashundhara Shopping Mall, this correspondent found that World renowned shoes like Timber Land-USA, ECCO-Slovakia, Sapaato-parish, Pacalolo-Indonesia, Adidas and Nicke of Germany were being sold in the mall. Besides, leather products of LELLE-USA, Dunlop-UK, POLO-India and readymade garments of the brands like Alone Dlone-USA, Crocodile-UK, Price Carden-Vietnam, Platinum-Indonesia, Leecopre-USA and Mark and Spancer branded items were being sold in the Centre. Only a few cosmetic items made in Bangladesh by Unilever were found on display in the store. "As our shipment of cosmetics has not yet arrived in Bangladesh, we displayed local items only made by Unilever," Mohibul Haq informed. However, Shop owners of food court have been expecting a bumper business as Arrival of Mustafa Centre may boost presence of customers manifold.