RAWALPINDI, July 28: With scorching heat confining people to their homes during day time, traders on Saturday announced that they would keep their shops open till late night to facilitate customers.
Spokesman Anjuman Tajiran Rawalpindi Naveed Kanwal said that the absence of shoppers during day time was taking a heavy toll on their business.
“In the absence of electricity, shopkeepers use generators for hours as alternative energy. But the more worrying problem is that markets wear deserted look the whole day due to sizzling heat in the month of fasting,” he said.
He said that traders would arrange private security guards for the safety of their businesses.
To a question he said there was no need to ask for permission of the authorities to keep shops opened in the night.
Usually Eid shopping gains momentum in the last 15 to 10 days of Ramazan and the markets remain opened till late night.
“The whole day we sit in shops and hardly three or five customers visit our shops. The whole market gives the look of curfew,” Raja Karam, owner of a shoes store in Rawalpindi Saddar told Dawn.
In a bid to attract customers, several shopkeepers have displayed special sales on commodities, but to their dismay no customer turns up.
However, according to general secretary Cantonment Traders Union Zaffar Qadri who owns a sports shop on Bank Road, the sky rocketing prices of commodities have kept shoppers at bay from commercial bazaars.
“One has to pay Rs2,500 for children wear. You have to pay Rs800 for a pair of shoes for a 3-year-old child. People prefer to buy things from small shops in streets rather than wasting money in major commercial markets,” Mr Qadri asserted.
He said that shopkeepers had to adjust the expenditure of generators in the price of a commodity which he said resulted in price hike and a burden on end consumers adding that the worsening loadshedding had made things bad.
The traders’ representative questioned the logic behind the decision to open shops till late night arguing that a customer would visit any market any time.