Desperate Eid shoppers throng market shops since morning, sales low

Shoppers thronged the capital's shopping malls and markets after 3pm on Friday, but hundreds of desperate Eid shoppers were there since morning on Saturday, immediately after the shops opened.

Social distancing and other health guidelines remained a far cry for both customers and shopkeepers alike in shopping malls, though most wore masks.

According to Mouchak and Fortune market authorities, customers started coming to the market around 10am and by 11-11:30am the whole marketplace was one large crowd.

However, the big crowd failed to bring joy to shopkeepers who said the lockdown from the start of Ramadan has already done them irreparable damage.

Shop owners at different markets said the arrival of the second wave of the ongoing pandemic just before the country's biggest festival has dealt a severe blow to their hopes of making any profits during Eid. They said people are now less interested in spend on anything but daily essentials since the pandemic has already cut their buying capacity to a great extent.

We lost the opportunity to recover losses incurred in the last one year, they said.

"Although a large number of shoppers came and we remained busy serving them, very few customers actually bought anything," said Samir Das, a salesman of Sharika Mark in Mouchak Market.

"Customers are bargaining and offering half the actual price of a product. The prices customers are offering do not cover the purchase cost. So sales are not as much as it would seem from the huge crowds of visitors," said Mojammel Huq, owner of Modern Fashion House at Fortune market.

"Overall sales are one-third compared to Eid sales in years before the pandemic. Actually, people have no money in hand. They are buying bare necessities only," he added.

Md Tamzid Khan, organisng secretary of Fortune Market Shop Owners Association, said, "We cannot recover our losses due to lockdowns imposed from the very beginning of Ramadan, and even after shopping malls were opened, public transport remained shut down until Friday last."

"Customers have only really started coming to the markets in the last two days," he said, "although they are not buying much."

He continued, "Customers look for low and mid-priced products. Businesses are now selling products at cost, with no thought of a profit. Now the target is to empty stocks without incurring any losses. Instead of a profit, all they want now is just to recoup investments."

Most customers were wearing masks, but did not care at all about maintaining social distance and hygiene rules. However, the shopkeepers at several markets were violating all kinds of health guidelines issued by the government as a prior condition to open their shops during the ongoing pandemic.

Most customers came to market risking being infected by the coronavirus, to buy new dresses for their near and dear ones ahead of Eid, but some came for nothing.

"We could not buy anything for Eid last year, so this year we do not want to miss the festival," said a housewife Tahmina Akter, who came to shop with two of her daughters.

"All of my relatives and neighbours bought new dresses, so there is no way out without buying gifts for my family, children, and for my aged parents," said  banker Tousif Ahmed, shopping at Taltola Market in Khilgaon.

Some customers were back a second time as they still needed to shop for things they could not manage to buy on the first day. Surprisingly, a number of youths came just for the sake of visiting the malls.