The traders are claiming that the sales during Eid season has been much less even though the markets and shopping malls were allowed to operate earlier amid the lockdown. As a result, the sales were about 70 percent less than expected. In terms of money which is about 9 thousand crore takas.
How much business happens around Eid?
Shops, shopping malls and fashion houses used to have around 60-70% annual income from two Eid festivals in regular time. Between these two, Eid-Ul-Fitr was the most profitable one.
Before the Covid situation, shop owners used to trade for BDT20,000-25,000 crore every Eid. In 2020, due to these unusual circumstances, only BDT2,000 crore were transacted, they said.
'BDT6000 crore transacted'
According to the traders, this year they were prepared for such a situation. They knew sales would be less than usual, but nobody expected to have such low turnover. The shop owners claim that the amount of the total transaction is even less than 30%.
President of Bangladesh Shop Owners Association Helal Uddin said, “Traders were hanging on the edge after losing three major festival markets last year. But this year too the sales did not go as expected.”
“We expected the trade at least would be worth Tk 10,000-15,000 crore in the Eid-ul-Fitr festival. But our sales have dropped to an all-time low phase.” he added.
Reasons behind low sales
The traders pointed out closure of public transports to be the primary reason behind low customer turnout.
Also many did not want to take the risk as the Covid situation was getting worse. Meanwhile, although public transport was reopened, due to the halt of long-distance transportation, many people avoided buying clothes and gifts for their loved ones. As a result, sales are lower than usual.
Traders drowning under hefty debts
“Corona's debt burden is increasing. I was able to open the shop a little earlier this Eid compared to the last time. And I thought we’d be able to make up for last year's loss. But the sales were highly disappointing,” said Dulal, a wholesale businessman of Dhaka Trade Center shopping mall.
“Right now, I am facing a capital crisis. The wholesale markets usually make profit one month prior to Ramadan, but the markets were closed back then. I opened my shop on the 18th day of Ramadan. But since buyers couldn’t come outside of Dhaka, I had to sell my products in retail instead of wholesale,” he added.
Gulistan metropolitan complex Panjabi businessman Ashraful Hossain said, “Half of the total panjabi business happens around Eid, which was not sold this year. But it was definitely better than the Eid of last year. With as much business as possible, I was able to at least celebrate Eid with my family. However, if the market was kept open at night, the sales would have increased.”
