SWABI: Eid shopping has started picking up across the district, which is expected to gather further momentum as the Eid festival draws near.

Anticipating Eid rush, traders said that they had already stuffed their shops with the Eid related items brought from major shopping centres in Lahore, Rawalpindi and Peshawar.

A trader told Dawn that he had purchased cloth worth over Rs1 million from a Lahore market some days back to attract women shoppers as the stuff contained fresh designs. “I hope that it would be sold out before Eid as women always like new brands,” he added.

Inyat Khan, a cloth merchant at Topi city, said that though shopping was yet to gather its expected pace, the past 14 days of Ramazan weren’t as bad as what we experienced over the past years.

Traders said fearing harsh summer well off people had already shopped different Eid specific items either in early days of Ramazan or before commencement of the fasting month, fearing that prices would jump around Eid.

The traders said that prices of shoes and readymade garments had gone so high that lower income groups just couldn’t afford to purchase them. A good pair of boys shoes cost approximately Rs1,800 to Rs3,000 while a pair of good sandal cost from Rs1,600 to Rs2,500.

“I brought three readymade suits for my three children from Islamabad before the start of Ramazan because my wife said that it might be difficult to go out for shopping in Ramazan,” said Baswar Ali Khan of Maneri village. However, he said his family still needed a lot of things to be purchased on Eid.

Sellers of bangles and henna said that the items always had great demand in the last week of Ramazan. “We are waiting for the last few days before Eid,” said Abbas Khan in the link road market.

The shopkeepers admitted that prices of readymade garments had increased compared to previous years. “Last year, a readymade suit for about 10 years old girl could be gotten at Rs1,000, but now the same could cost from Rs1,300 to Rs1,500,” said a cloth seller. Similarly, boys’ shalwar kameez price has jumped from Rs1,500 to nearly Rs2,500, he added. He said that consumers didn’t mind paying extra if they got quality stuff.

On the other hand, people complained that traders sold them low quality item at exorbitant rates, showing it to be best quality stuff. They said that there were no fixed rates of readymade garments and it all depended on the mood of the client and the shopkeeper’s ability how to trap his consumer. “Traders earn a windfall profit around Eid by selling low quality stuff at higher prices,” complained Saleem Tanoli, a Wapda employee.

Published in Dawn, July 15th, 2014