Sleepless for shopping

It was almost midnight. Shoppers' turnout was same like the rest of the day at Bashundhara City shopping mall. Each floor of the eight-storey mall was abuzz.
Young boys and married couples were the majority at the city's different shopping malls, with a few days left for celebrating the two main religious festivals back-to-back. Eid and then Durga Puja.
Long queues were seen at ATM booths outside some malls, indicating much money was circulating for the shopping purpose.
"I think it's the best time for shopping after taking Iftar and dinner," said Russell, a student of Dhaka University, standing in front of a Cats Eye showroom at Bashundhara. Russell bought some T-shirts, which he said are the best for this season's fashion.
Customers were seen rushing mainly to shoe, punjabi and baby-wear shops. Women were crowding cosmetics outlets.
Bata Shoe showrooms witnessed a heavy crowd. Shoe is the item that the customers usually buy during the last hour shopping, said Atique, a salesman. He said daily sales went up to Tk 25 lakh from Tk 15 lakh in the first week of Ramadan.
At Family Mart, a baby-wear shop, Noumita wanted to buy a dress with a price tag of Tk 8,000. But her parents declined as the price was too high. However the gloomy face of Noumita was enough to convince her parents. She smiled her gain.
Salespersons at Family Mart said the customers' flow to the market remained same until 12.30am. Shopkeepers were busy until 1.30 at Bashundhara City.
There is no limit of choices for products in the Eid shopping. So crowd was seen at almost all types of shops.
At the music outlets, albums of Bappa and Tapu were seen on the top selling list. "Three albums of the two artistes are on the top in terms of sales," said Alamgir of Smiley CD shop.
"Eid doesn't mean wearing smart clothes only. Music and movie are also the parts of the festival," said Tanmay who was holding more than 30 CDs in his hand at the Smiley CD shop to pick his choices.
A big crowd was also seen in Eastern Plaza and Elephant Road shopping areas.
But the footpath vendors were not that busy. From Fakirapool to Motijheel a few customers were found. Shopkeepers blamed heavy rain for slack sales in the roadside makeshift markets.
"Sale is good. Electricity shortage sometimes disrupts our sales," said Mia Rahmat, who was closing his clothes shop at 12.45am at Baitul Mukarram market.
At 1am, Karnaphuli Garden City mall at Kakrail was closed. But the markets in Malibagh areas were open until 2am. "We are coming at midnight as we had shift duties in our company that ended at 8pm," said Aysha, a garment worker at Mouchak market.
"This area is suitable for us for buying clothes at affordable prices," she added.