A flea market in the city
Thousands of items of electronic products like this are displayed and sold at an unbelievably cheap rate on the footpath of Geneva Camp at Humayun Road, Mohammadpur area
Few months back Moshiur Rahman, a resident at Adabor 10 in Mohammadpur area, bought a 21-inch colour television of the brand Sony at Tk1,500 only.
"The TV was a good one. So, I sent that to my village home. And now I am here to buy another one for my family in Dhaka," said Moshiur.
Finally, this rickshaw mechanic succeeded in buying another colour television of LG of the same size at the same price.
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Thousands of items of electronic products like this are displayed and sold at an unbelievably cheap rate on the footpath of Geneva Camp at Humayun Road, Mohammadpur area.
The only issue is that you never know how many hands actually your product has changed, since the sellers too have no inkling about it.
That is the only reason you can get an iPhone charger at Tk10. And if you are lucky enough, the device can be used for two months without any problem at all.
Every day at around 4:00pm, the adjoining footpath of the school adjacent to Geneva Camp gets busy with sellers and buyers. They are observed trying to negotiate the prices of what many may interpret as junk to many. However, among the string of sellers who aims to get their hands on as many operational electronic wares as they can, spirit runs high. They are hopeful about each and every item they put on sale.
Spreading tarpaulin on the footpath, sellers – most of whom are residents of the camp, sit with hundreds of used electronic items. Among them, one can find almost all sorts of mobile chargers – different models, micro to giant-sized multi-plugs – rarely with all the sockets functioning, small and big sound boxes, mobile phone batteries, back covers, head phones, power banks, clothes iron, torch lights, hair dryer, hair straightener, air conditioner, table fan and what not!
Md Soleman, a 55-year-old vendor in this evening market, has been in this business for the last 30 years.
"Every day, I open the shop around 3.00pm. I bring some of the items from Gulistan area and from the local hawkers. I make a profit of Tk200-300 daily from my sells," said Soleman.
Local hawkers outsource some of the items from the city dwellers' households. Collecting those items from the hawkers, they sellers of the flea market present them in their footpath shops.
There are almost 20-25 shops there which have more or less the same variety of products.
Aside from people who genuinely want to buy products from here, there is also a big crowd of curious onlookers.
Mohammad Idris, a resident of Adabar area, was walking from one shop to another with a clothes iron in his hand – his asking price was Tk150, but none of the shopkeepers was willing to offer him that.
"Though I knew that unused items can be sold here, this is my first visit. The iron is out of use for many days. It's better to sell it as there's the opportunity here," smiled Idris.
While passing the road towards the Krishi market in the same area, one can hear Bangla and Hindi songs playing in high-volume as the vendors not only sell the products, some of them also repair the items, mostly sound boxes.
Surrounded by hundreds of wires, Enayet Mia was sitting on a tool – meticulously repairing a sound box.
"Many people, most of them belonging to the working class, come with the sound boxes, radio or other electronic items. I have been in the profession for about 15 years. If any item is repairable, I work on it. Otherwise they sell it off at a very low price," said Enayet.
Nurjahan Begum, an elderly vendor who has been continuing the business after her father-in-law and husband, told The Business Standard, "People who don't come from the well-to-do families and are not able to buy first-hand products, come and buy these at a very cheap rate. We cannot give any guarantee for these products as we do not buy it first-hand either."
Different products come at different prices in this market. A TV can cost up to Tk1,500, a table fan at Tk200 to Tk300, the prices of other small items depend on one's bargaining skill. But none of these come with warranty or guarantee.
