Eid shopping frenzy at city malls
The shopping centres across the city witnessed a huge crowd, mostly with thousands of garment workers rushing to the marketplaces amid long tailbacks on the streets following closure of their factories yesterday.
The retailers in the makeshift shops of sandals, shoes, punjabis, caps, lungis and atar (perfume) were found busy for sale, even hiking more prices towards the end of the holy month of Ramadan.
The shopping centres in New Market, Gauchhia, Karwan Bazar, Farmgate, Gulshan, Baridhara, Uttara, Dhanmondi and Mirpur registered brisk business only two or three days before the festival celebrated worldwide by the Muslims.
The roads leading to these areas were severely jammed with traffic, mostly private cars and rickshaws, though a large number of people have already left the capital for their village homes to celebrate the Eid vacation following the official holiday that began on Friday. Many said the traffic would ease by today.
“Yes, the shopping is almost at the end. But, still many will be doing Eid shopping until sighting of the moon for Eid celebration,” said Tareq, a salesman at Bashundhara City Shopping Complex at Panthapath in the city.
It is basically this week when most shoppers thronged the shopping malls, he said, adding that crowd was comparatively less on Friday, but there was a huge shopping spree almost everywhere in the city yesterday.
“I could not make time earlier. So, today and tomorrow is the time for me to shop,” Nawsheen, a shopper, told The Daily Star on her way to Gauchhia Market.
Festivals like Eid come with more joy for those having either good businesses or jobs. The people of low-income brackets celebrate the festival too when they get handsome bonus.
Rehana, 24, a garment worker, is one of them who got bonus, 70 percent of her Tk 2,600 monthly salary. Like thousand others, she got vacation from the factory only at 3:00pm yesterday and rushed to the cloth market at Karwan Bazar.
“I will buy a saree and some clothes for my parents,” she said.
A large portion of the garment workers, however, did not get any bonus.
“I did not get any bonus, because I joined the factory only seven months back. Those who worked at least for one year get bonus,” said Hamida, adding that she cannot buy anything special for her or her family.
Hamida, who stays in a slum area at Indira Road, said she cannot go home in Barisal to see her children during the Eid. “Prices of essentials for the poor like us are high. Eid for me is not so much special.”
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