KARACHI, Oct 22: Once the most sought after electronic item on the occasion of Eidul Azha, the deep freezer sees its sales slipping with consumers not showing any enthusiasm in purchasing it.

In contrast, sales of refrigerators are satisfactory and thus offsetting the losses of manufacturers in deep freezers.

Deep freezer dealers in Saddar area said that increase in food prices and utility bills have taken away the buyers from the markets. “We used to stay late night in the market till 2:00am few years ago owing to a sharp increase in the demand of deep freezers,” the dealers said, adding that they now pull down their shutters at 9:30-10pm.

In view of high power tariff and utility bill, they said that many people have now realised that the main use of deep freezers usually hovers between first day of Eid ul Azha to maximum one or two months or till Muharram for storing meat.

Perhaps another reason of early closure of markets is the deteriorating law and order, extortion slips and thefts. Most importantly, the price of deep freezers has swelled sharply in the last few years. For example, dealers said that an eight cubic feet deep freezer costs at least Rs23,600-25,000 while one can purchase a 12 and 13 cubic feet fridge at Rs32,000 and Rs33,000 respectively.

They said that 10 and 13 cubic feet deep freezers sell at Rs26,000 and Rs27,800 respectively.

“Few years back, we literally had no time to talk other people except customers in times of our booming sales. Now the situation has changed which is evident from early closure of markets,” the dealers said.

However, a domestic appliance dealer at Aisha Manzil market at F.B. Area did not agree that the sales of deep freezers had hit the bottom. He said actually the dealers of Saddar area have been losing their buyers for the last few years who now prefer purchasing domestic appliances from nearby areas instead of taking risk of going to Saddar owing to lawlessness coupled with traffic jams.

He said that a difference of Rs1,000-1,200 in deep freezers exists between the wholesale Saddar market and markets of city’s other areas but buyers do not realise that they pay the discount being offered by shopkeepers in Saddar market in transportation cost.

The production figures of Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) give a real picture of sales. In July-August 2012 deep freezer production dropped to 9,096 units from 10,323 units in the same period of last year. In 2011-2012, deep freezers production plunged to 56,313 units from 87,125 units in 2010-2011.

Dealers said that sales of refrigerators are gradually picking up major buying comes from the families who give away fridge as a dowry item.

However, many people who cannot afford a brand new appliance are also lifting used fridges at price ranging Rs 10,000-16,000 to meet the demand in Eid ul Azha.

Production of fridge in July-August 2012 went up to 202,101 units from 190,752 units in the corresponding period of 2011.

Total fridge production in 2011-2012 rose to 1,062,856 units from 986,941 units in 2010-2011.