Eid shopping gets into gear in city

The city dwellers on Friday rushed to various shopping malls and centres to do Eid shopping as the month of Ramadan is almost at its end.
Major city markets witnessed a heavy rush since 11:00 in the morning as it was the last Friday before Eid.
Those who could not go for marketing due to heavy crowd or traffic jam or work pressure had rushed to the markets at the weekend. Shops with shoes, panjabi and cosmetics saw an overflow of shoppers.
There was a tremendous crowd at popular shopping hubs like New Market, Gawsia, Bashundhara, Elephant Road, Bailey Road, Mouchak and Chandni Chawk.
Although extra traffic police personnel were deployed in various shopping areas to control traffic, they were facing difficulties in keeping the traffic flow smooth Friday.
Jubaraj, a resident of Banglamotor went to the Bashundhara City shopping mall spent at least five minutes in the queue at the entrance. There are six entrances to the market but all of them had long queues.
"I went there to buy shoes and a shirt for myself. But it was so crowded that I could not even enter some of the shops," he told the FE.
Badrul Ahsan, a resident of the city's Bailey Road area visited Bailey Road and Polwel Market to buy shoes for him and other members of the family.
"The crowd was so big at the shoe shops that I could not even see items properly. That's why I left the market in the afternoon and will go there again when it is free," he said.
The city markets witnessed an increased trend of late-night shopping since Thursday night, especially by those who wanted to avoid day-time crowd and traffic hassles. They enjoy shopping until midnight.
This year the traders did more or less satisfactory business as there was no major political instability in the country like that last year. This has made people's movement easier.
Russel Majumder, managing director of Durlov-Queeny at Uttara in the city told the FE the customer flow increased since Thursday. They came for shopping mainly after Iftar and were shopping till midnight, he added.
Selim Ahmed, manager of Star World, a cosmetics and imitation jewellery at the Bashundhara City shopping mall said there was a rush of customers on Thursday but most of them were here to see the ICC trophy.