Shoppers at Bashundhara City in Dhaka take a break for iftar yesterday. With no time to waste, they will soon return to the bustle of Eid shopping. Photo: Shawkat Jamil

Pre-Eid-ul-Fitr sales of clothes, footwear, electronic gadgets, jewellery and cosmetics in the capital all appear to be above last year's tally, as the year's biggest spending season is close to its end. Businesspeople at malls, shopping centres and unauthorised footpath shops are reporting better sales than last year in both men's and women's items. Local brand Dorjibari, which sells clothes and other items for gents at seven stores in the capital, said sales are up. Boutique fashion sales are also up compared to last Eid. And sari traders said women have started to throng their shops. Jugol Krishna Thakur, manager at the Rumzhum Sharee Kutir at the city's Bailey Road, said sales were below expectations in the months prior to Ramadan -- but no longer. "Eid has boosted our sales of various kinds of saris, such as cotton, jamdani and Tangail silk," said Thakur, adding that jamdani saris sell for Tk 3,000-4,000. Bangladeshis typically spends a third of their annual budget for garments and related items during Ramadan. The Dhaka Metropolitan Shop Owners Association puts the total at Tk 5,000 crore. Footwear salesmen said most people buy shoes in the last week of Ramadan; and this time is no different. "Compared to the last year's Eid, the sales are obviously good this time," said Saiful Islam, a salesman of the popular local brand Apex. He said the company's Malibagh Store alone sold 10,000 pairs of shoes last year, and he hopes to best that by the holiday's start this Thursday. Electronics shops said the sales have surpassed their expectations by large margin. Mazharul Hasan, in charge of Sony-Rangs in Mouchak, said there is a normal upward flow of sales, which is about 35 percent above last year's level. He declined to give the taka value or number of units sold. Sales of mobile handsets are also up, particularly of handsets that support two SIM cards. Among appliances, deep-freezers, televisions, blenders and irons topped the gift list, said a salesman of electronics retailer Transcom Digital, adding that the sales are growing on an average of 10 percent annually. Salesmen report brisk sales of cosmetics and jewellery. Jeweller KZ, at Navana Bailey Road Star Market in Shantinagar, reports better-than-expected sales: "We sold imitation jewellery items, such as earrings, finger rings, necklaces, bracelets, toe-rings, armlets and anklets worth Tk 15 lakh ahead of last Eid-ul-Fitr," said Mamun Rashid, the manager of the store. “We have already surpassed the amount and hope to go much higher in the next couple of days.” Three shops away, Eliza (who would give only her first name) was overseeing sales of cosmetics items at Stardust. She said sales of everyday items, such as soaps and shampoo, are as normal, but more shoppers are buying colour cosmetics, such as lipsticks, nail-polish, eye-shadow, eyeliner, mehendi tube and henna before Eid. Bangles salesmen at Gauchhia Market said their sales normally go up steeply ahead of Eid, as many women and even girls see wearing the items as required at Eid. "We make half of the year's total sales before Eid-ul-Fitr," said shopowner Abu Raihan. Business leaders said the higher sales this year were boosted by improved traffic, stable prices and public order. “The customers, buoyed by largely stable basic commodities markets, have thronged the stores in droves,” said Helal Uddin, the shopowners' association president.

fazlur.rahman@thedailystar.net