Weekend shopping spree in city as Eid drawing near

With the biggest religious festival of the Muslims, Eid-ul-Fitr, now drawing near, shoppers thronged the city shopping malls and wayside markets on the weekend for their prime-time purchases.
Salespersons had no time to talk as the shoppers crowded the shops with their choice lists.
The Eid sales are seen going up above last year's, and it will continue until before Eid day, some of the traders expressed such hope.
Visiting different shops the correspondent observed medium-priced and local-made fashion wear in higher demand among the customers than imported luxury dresses.
Although fashion-loving people are searching high-priced party dresses, their number is very insignificant. Most of the shops with pricey dresses were found almost free from buyers.  
"Majority customers are fond of local wear," said Masud Hossain Sumon, sales manager at the Smartex mart at Bashundhara City.
For looking modern, exclusive fashion and comfortable, local brands are dominating the Eid sales, he said.
The salesmen at Kay Kraft, Srishti, Nagordola, Deshal, and Nipun at the Deshi Dosh outlets held the same opinion--that their festival sales went on very well and it will increase further next week.
On the other hand, traders in luxury dresses expressed frustration as they are not getting desired customer turnout, though the Eid-ul-Fitr is not far off.
"There are several new collections in my showroom, but I did not get customers," said Mizan at Rishan Boutiques.
He observed that economic condition is not good and so maximum people have little money to buy costly wear.
"My sales are going very bad as only few number of people are making their selection on lavish dresses," rues Mr Mizan.
He has kept in his collection Indian ladies' wear like floor-touch Koti dress, Anarkoli up to Tk 40,000 each.
He also said they displayed more expensive dresses at Tk 70,000 to 50,000 each--and yet sales were good.
Traders at Arnima fashion, Lamisa fashion, Hoimonti and Tanha Boutique also aired dissatisfaction over their transactions. They said Eid is the lone season for selling such gorgeous wears.
"My daily sales were nearly Tk 300,000 during last Ramadan, which came down to Tk100,000 this year," said the owner of Arnima Fshion.
He is selling imported women's wears from Calcutta and Bombay at up to Tk 35,000 each. Smartex has kept in its Eid collection for women shalwar-kamiz  at Tk 4,500 to 10,000, single kamiz at Tk 750 to 3,250 each, men's shirt at around Tk 1500 and pants Tk 1700.
The fashion house has 32 outlets--12 in Dhaka and others are at upzila level across the country. It's also doing well in Eid-business binge.
The prices are varying at Kay Kraft from shalwar kamiz at Tk 2200 and 4000, saris at Tk 1400 to 19000, panjabi at Tk 900 to Tk 6000 and kid's items at Tk 500 to 3000 each.
Doraemon at Bashundara City displayed Indian and Chinese kid's wears like Kironmala, floor-touch frock for children. The most selling item at the shop is Kironmala named after popular character of Indian TV daily soap, said a salesman.
People can purchase kid's dresses from the showroom at Tk 5500 to 15000 each.
    arafat_ara@hotmail.com