Shopkeepers wooing Eid shoppers

Rawalpindi: Crystal jewellery sets, dazzling under the cheerful spotlights, besides glass and velvet bangles, winter garments displayed on carts and inside the shops, are luring the homemakers and working women alike as hectic preparations are on for Eid in Pindi.

The plazas, shopping malls and shops, especially in Saddar, Murree Road, Satellite Town, Sadiqabad, Raja Bazaar, Bara Bazaar, Eidgah Road, Jamia Masjid Road, Sarafan Bazaar, Qila Mohallah, Saidpur Road, Tench Bhatta have been decked up for the occasion.

For the women shoppers, a large variety of bangles, including metal, velvet and crystal ones with ‘meenakaari’, are on display at the shops. However, hair bands coated with glitter and sparkle and with stars and moon embedded on these are the hot favourites among the young girls.

Bangles with sparkles are the most sought after. These are available at reasonable price. The gifts of leather handbags, purses and fancy clothes on the purchase of goods worth Rs5,000 are available. Booking for ‘mehndi’, the most essential ingredient of Eid has also started.

Shopping by women for the occasion has started in a big way. The timing for opening the shops have also been extended by two hours. Women are also busy buying fancy suits and dresses for the day. A large variety of embroidered suits have been put on display at most all suit and garments stores in the city.

Delawar Hussain, a salesman at the market said: “This is a peak time for our business. We have no time to talk.” Shopping malls on Murree Road, Raja Bazaar were found crowded with customers.

Shops selling ready-made garments, trinkets, shoes and cosmetics were bustling with customers. They are thronging the markets like Ghakar Plaza, Ramazan Plaza, Rabi Center, China Center, Hong Kong Plaza, Abbas Shopping Mall, and Singapore Shopping Center, Junaid Jamshed outlet, Dubai Plaza, Iqbal Road markets and many others.

Prices are high, but they could not dampen the mood of buyers, who are rushing from market to market and browsing around the shops to fix their choices before picking those up finally. Salesmen at different markets said their sales started to pick up. Tahmin Najaf, a housewife at Satellite Town residential area on Murree Road, was delighted by the latest collections of fashions at dress shops.

Makeshift shops on the footpaths are also experiencing large crowds, mainly of the lower-and middle-income-group people. The shopkeepers, be it in the markets and shopping centres or on the footpaths, display trendy and latest-design dresses to attract the shoppers.

There is thriving businesses on footpaths. Hawkers are enjoying business opportunity on the footpaths in Pindi without any disturbance by the law enforcers. Street vendors, occasionally shocked by eviction drives that throw them out of business, look mostly happy with daily turnovers from their makeshift shops on the footpaths alongside several markets.

People from lower, lower-middle, middle and even upper-middle classes buy different kinds of garments like shirts, trousers, kids wear, shoes, shorts, stocking, sandal, ‘shalwar-kamiz’, perfume, ornaments and cosmetics from roadside shops. Although hawkers set up their shops in almost all areas in the city, huge crowds draw to areas like Saddar, Jamia Masjid Road, Liaquat Road, College Road, Raja Bazaar, Iqbal Road, Moti Bazaar. There are also seasonal hawkers, doing business on footpaths. On special occasions like Eid, the number of street vendors goes up.

The Pindi Police, meanwhile, has tightened security for ensuring safety of the shoppers as well as the businessmen. Additional forces have been deployed for the purpose.