Furniture and electronics vendors pin hopes on Eid

Furniture makers offer heavy discounts to gain from the Eid shopping spree as customers are flocking back to the city's malls after a long spell of shutdowns. Photo: Star/file

Many furniture and electronics stores are offering price cuts this year to capitalise on people's spending spree during Ramadan, the peak selling season for clothes, shoes and jewellery.
Partex Furniture is offering 18 percent discount on wooden furniture, 12 percent on metal chair and 18 percent on some other items, said Rajib Kumar Roy, manager of the brand's store in the city's Panthapath.
Its rivals Hatil, Otobi and Brothers Furniture have also come up with same offers. Hatil and Brothers are offering 5 to 15 percent discounts, while Otobi has slashed the prices of its items by 5 to 50 percent.
Nokia has taken between Tk 500 to Tk 1,600 off its Asha handsets, and Fujifilm has cut the price of its instant camera series by Tk 1,000.
Sony is also offering discounts on its LED, 3D, LCD and internet-ready flat panel television sets.
About common allegations that brands and shops change price tags before offering any discount, Roy said: "Furniture is never an impulse buy. People shop around for months, so they already know the prices by heart -- we'd easily be caught out."
Meanwhile, due to the slow start to Ramadan sales due to political tension, many clothing stores are offering discounts to perk up their sales figures.
Cats Eye and Monsoon Rain, two popular clothing brands, are selling their products at 10 percent below usual prices, while Texmart is offering a free shirt with every two purchased.
Hearts on Fire, a diamond jewellery shop at Navana Bailey Star shopping complex, has cut down prices of its rings, ear-rings and nose rings by 30 percent.
Shashanka Das, sales executive of the store, have backed up Roy's words about the discounts on offer being genuine.
"Most of our customers are regular in nature, so they know the prices very well. To coax them into spending, we have cut down the prices."
Sweet Dreams, a beauty parlour near Navana Bailey Star shopping complex, is also offering discounts on its services: it is 5 percent for spending of up to Tk 2,000 and 10 percent beyond that.
However, the offer will come to an end today, as customers normally start to flock to saloons after Ramadan 15, said Helena Akhter, in-charge of the store.
Popular clothing brand Kay Kraft is offering 10 percent discount on purchases using credit or debit cards of Standard Chartered Bank, Eastern Bank, LankaBangla Finance and BRAC Bank.
Star subscribers of Grameenphone are also entitled to the offer, said Abdul Qaiyum Miah, manager of the brand's store in Bailey Road.
Menz Club, too, is offering 15 percent discounts to star subscribers of Grameenphone.