The capital's shopping malls witnessed the rush of Eid shoppers on
Friday, as the customers utilised the weekend holiday for buying
festival wears.
Shop owners in the city's different shopping arcades and other
outlets said they have been waiting for the day and got an extraordinary
response from the customers as many of them got their salaries at the
beginning of the month.
The sales of my showroom has gone up nearly 50 per cent today
(Friday) compared to other days, said a women ready-to-wear trader at
New Market in the city.
The trend of sales will also continue tomorrow (Saturday), the other weekend holiday, expressed the hope the woman traders.
But some shop owners expressed frustration over the sales and said
they are not getting desired number of customers following the decline
in the real income of the people in general and the increase in the
prices most items.
Sales managers of M Craft and Unish Kuri, two boutique houses at the
city's Baily Road said the sales this year have showed a downward trend
at least by 65 per cent.
After 10 days of the Ramadan, the gathering of buyers generally increase but this time the turn out of is very low, they said.
Currently, we are selling only 25 to 30 pieces of clothing items, 80 per cent less then that last year Eid festival.
We sold nearly 200 pieces of clothes until now and at the end of the
day the volume of the total sales may reach 600 pieces, said a salesman
of Kay Kraft at the Baily Road outlet.
The overall sales are 250 pieces to 300 in working days, he added.
Monir Hossain, sales manager of Batool's boutique shop at the Navana
Baily Star in the city, said the sales of the showroom reached at the
satisfactory level compared to other days.
The fashion house has a collection of local and Indian shalwar-kameez, he added.
The cost of a local lady's three pieces is varying from Tk 2,000 to
Tk 7,000 while the Indian one from Tk 4,000 to Tk 10,000 depending on
quality and design.
New Row, the baby wears showroom at the same place also received an enormous number of customers.
A salesman of the shop said the prices of the baby wears vary from Tk
650 to Tk 4,500 for girl child and Tk 650 to Tk 3,500 for the boys,
depending also on size and quality.
Besides, the shop is also selling Chinese, Thai and Indian baby wears, he said.
The sales of the festival dresses and necessary items are getting
momentum at the Gausia and Chandi Chalk Market in the city, where all
classes of people, particularly the middle income group of people, go
for shopping.
Sales manger Rezwan of Suraiya show room at Gausia market said he got
significant response from the customers on Friday, saying that he sold a
good number of unstitched Salwar-Kameez on cotton Katan, Net Katan and
clothes on Madrasi Designing Katan, Rubia Buta Cotton Kotki. etc.
The prices of Indian wears ranges from Tk 1,800 to Tk 5,000 per piece
at Suraiya showroom. The overall cost of all types of Salwar-Kameez,
Sharees, baby's and gent's wears has almost doubled, claimed the buyers.
Shanchita, a customer, who came to Chandi Chalk market said the
dresses, she used to buy at Tk 3,000 before Ramadan is now being sold at
Tk 5,500.
Saikat Iqbal, another shopper, also said the cost of gents T-shirts
and denim trousers increased by nearly 20 per cent ahead of the Eid.
Shop owners are of the opinion that following the price hike of raw
materials, the cost of the garment products has increased this year.
They said the government has raised the rate of Value Added Tax (VAT)
from two per cent to four per cent and increased import duty on foreign
dresses. This is the reason for price hike, the said.
They said the cost of production of a piece of garment has increases by at least Tk 500 to Tk 1,000 on the occasion of Eid.
The traders at the Gausia Market said this year the fashionable women
are mostly choosing Indian and Chinese three-pieces and other clothes.
The best selling sarees are Virzana Katan, Net Katan, South Katan, Tissue Katan, Broket Katan etc, they added.
The prices of the designed clothes are being sold from at Tk 1,000 to Tk 1,400 per yard.
Ashraful Haider, marketing officer of Kay Kraft said since July 8
they are displaying exclusive shalwar kamiz, 'fotwa', sarees, top
panjabi, short panjabi, and T-shirts in their all outlets.
The fashionable young girls are now-a-days fond of long kameez with
'churidar' shalwar; so we are putting emphasis on the fashion, said the
Kay Kraft marketing officer.
The prices of Kay Kraft sarees vary from Tk 395 to Tk 10,000 each.
The prices of Anjan's Shalwar kamiz is varying from Tk 2,200 to Tk
8,000, sarees from Tk 750 to Tk 50,000 and baby's wears from Tk 800 to
Tk 2000 depending on designs and fabrics.
The fashion lovers are also purchasing shoes and jewelry items to match with their dresses.
The sales at the City's Bashundhara City Complex, Karnaphuli Garden city and Eastern Plaza have also got momentum.
Source: The Financial Express, Sat, 04/08/2012
