& çâÌæÚUæð´ ·¤è ¥ôÚU Îð¹Ùæ ÁæÚUè ÚU¹ð´ ¥ÍæüÌ ¥ÂÙð ÜÿØ ÂÚU ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´Ð ãæÚU Ù ×æÙð´, €UØô´ç·¤ ·¤æ× ·¤ÚUÙð âð ¥æÂ·¤ô ©gðàØ ·¤è Âýæç# ãôÌè ãñ ¥õÚU ÁèßÙ ·¤æ ¹æÜèÂÙ ÎêÚU ãôÌæ ãñÐ ÖÜð ãè ÁèßÙ ×ð´ ç·¤ÌÙè Öè ·¤çÆÙæ§ü €UØô´ Ù ¥æ°, çÁ™ææâæ ¥õÚU ©ˆâæã ÕÙæ° ÚU¹ð´Ð ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´, ÜÿØ ã×ðàææ ¥æÂ·Ô¤ Âæâ ãôÌð ãñ´ çÁ‹ãð´ ÂæÙð ·Ô¤ çÜ° ÂýØæâ ¥æÂ ·¤Öè Öè àæéM¤ ·¤ÚU â·¤Ìð ãñ´Ð

Eid Shopping: Loose Strands of Stray Thoughts

ALONG MY WAY

S B Chaudhuri
***By all accounts, Eid ahopping thia year waa pretty brisk. Roads leading to the main shopping areas had been clogged with traffic for days on, Prices are said to have gone up by 10 to 50 per cent as compared to last year's Eid bazaar. But this hasn't dampened the buying spree.
Markets in Hie wesi take stock of consumer confidence from the tempo of Christinas shopping. In our case the pace of Etd-ul-Fltr shopping can well be used as a foil to test how freely the consumer would spend his money. It's bound to be just an approximation at best. How ever, markets have yet to develop anything as accurate as the barometer, to measure consumer confidence which is illusive any way. The difference is that In the West the market haS ready access to a string of economic data about retail sales factory orders and so on. In our case it s mostly .mecdot.il evidence backed by obwn Ukhi Well .u least that
First du demand side of Eld shopping. Traditionally this is the occasion to buy new clothes. Shoes and socks perhaps come next on the shopping list And caps of course. Many families, particularly the middle class, defer such pur-< liases till the festival. Families also don't buy attire just for themselves. It is customary to provide the domestic help with a set of clothes on this occasion. Items of attire would be bought as gifts for the members of extended family too.
Women in the family would buy trinkets, glass bangles and immitation jewellery. The rich would go for the real thing, gold ornaments. There are families who postpone procurement of consumer durables till the festival — to •make an occasion of it. Toys do not come that high on the Eld shopping list as it Is with Christmas shoppers. Greeting cards fare much better. These are sold in millions on such an occasion.
Then there is the shopping for victuals. As a matter of fact, food Items tops the Eld shopping list for some. For. it is an occasion for feasting too. especially after a month of fasting. Tradition dictates that the fare should be rich on the day of the festival. And there should be tables laden with-dishes of tasty snacks and choice tidbits to entertain the visitors — $11 friends and relations. It takes quite a bit of money to arrange all that.
Such preparations of food smacks of conspicuous consumption. Well, it is. It is a day of celebration after all. Yet. the festival brings a gift for the poorest too. The gilt comes by way of Jitra. a charity obligatory under ihe tenets of religion. Ftlra is calculated at the rate of 2.25 kilograms of wheat for each member of the families celebrating the festival. That ties in with the festival being named Eid-ul-Filr. The idea is that not. even a beggar should go hungry on this day. Usually it is the monetary equivalent of the wheat that is given out as charity. This year's Jitra was fixed at Tk 22 per head. Last year, it was Tk 20. Inflation accounting is at work here, reflecting the rise in price of foodgrains. You might also wonder why for a rice-eating population. Jitra is fixed in terms of wheat. It doesn't matter really and we have turned into wheat eaters anyway. What mutters is the good cause.
All in all. tlie demand ef-Iccis of Eid shopping is considerable by our standard. The total outlay would easily run fo tens of billions of Taka. Il's not just the producers and sellers of goods on the shoppers' lists who see' money rolling in. The tailor who stitches the cloth, the barber who gives the Eid haircut or the hair-do. the florist who supplies the flowers — you name them — they all share the bonanza. Even the beggar has his portion of the pie. Of course, it could be argued that Eld shopping is a feature of urban areas only. There is' truth in this. Nonetheless, it is also true that the affluent and the middle class are concentrated In urban areas. And these are the people who offer potentials as consumers. Their Eid spendings trickle down the economy as a whole.
By all accounts. Eid shopping this year was pretty brisk. Roads leading to the main shopping areas had been clogged with traffic for days on. Prices are said to have gone up by 10 to 50 per cent as compared to last year's Eid bazaar. But this hasn't dampened the buying spree. By now. nearly all towns and cities in :ttje country have shopping
complex where you can buy almost all the things you need — under the same roof. Most of these shopping centres have arrangements for car parking to attract affluent customers. Prices are bit high but you also do your shopping in relative comfort.
Side by side with these modern shopping centres, traditional bazaars also had been doing roaring business. These looked even busier than the sleek shopping complex. All towns and cities have these bazaars. They also offer a wide variety of goods and a broad range of choices. Prices generally are lower than in the shopping centres for lookalike articles. If you are an expert bargainer, your could be sure of beating prices further down.
At the low end of the markets in towns and cities, there are the pavement shops and roadside vendors. The asking price for an article in these truly mass markets could be anywhere up to 50 per cent lower than the posh shopping complex. Quality may not be the same but not that had either. Low price Is the main at--traction hut even then, a lively haggling session would ensue. It is important that the shopper has plenty of time In hand. Not just for bargaining but also for giving each article a rally close look after the deal is struck. Otherwise, the vendor could palm off defective goods.
Salespeople's job Is to sell. Use of gimmicks to promote sales and attract buyers is also expected. This year, major shopping centres in Chittagong seem to have earned bit of a distinction by offering lucky coupons to customers who bought goods worth a certain minimum value. The coupons could fetch . the holders attractive prizes such as cars, refrigerators, colour television and so on. Some dubbed the sales drive unauthorised lottery. Authorities also took umbrage and sent out threats of legal action. Npthing much would probably happen. The Chittagong sales pitch reportedly was inaugurated by no less personage than a minister.
Anecdotal evidence suggests that the Eld sales this time were some 30 per cent more than last year. Does this indicate a corresponding rise in consumer earnings? We know for sure that it is not so. All the same, consumers did spend more. May be. they felt •less Inclined to hold their money back. Consumer confidence may have grown. Could it also signal an upturn in the economy? Ah. that again is another story. Involving a whole raft of variables., Suffice It to say that prospects look better but trot quite rosy.
• , » •
FOREIGN products were available aplenty for the Eid shoppers. However, all the products branded as foreign-made were not truly so. Many of the elegant dresses and other apparel labelled as having been manufactured abroad had really been made at home. Such quality products were being flaunted as foreign goods to attract buyers in the, hope of realising high prices.
It was on such a day fifteen years ago that I had gone to a shop In Bangkok to buy a pair of shoes. I, was then staying Tn Bangkok doing a consultancy job with the UN ESCAP. I liked a nice pair of shoes but not the price. Neither could I speak Thai nor the salesman English, Ajjyhow. I made the appropriate gestures to let the salesman understand that thc^price was too high for me. He immediately came up with a pad and pencil — thrusting these into may hands — signalling me put down my offer.. Apparently he could read the numbers alright. So 1 jotted down a figure, and after reading it. he nodded his head sadly Then he scribbled a set of numbers which fell In between the original price and my offer. I could cut a deal, so I thought.
Yet. what still bothered me was the label tagged to the shoes declaring these to be of Italian make. Given the lan-
guage barrier there was hardly anv hope of clearing up my misgivings. Just then another customer entered the shop. Obviously a Thai, he also had an English magazine In his hand. I approached him.' taking it for granted that he knew English. The gentleman listen to me with a broad smile on his face and then talked to the salesman. After a while he turned to me and explained that the shoes were really made in Thailand but the Made in Italy’ label has been attached to attract buyers. The salesman says shoes sell better that way." he added and then left the shop abruptly, looking rather • ashamed. I thought.
Things have changed. The Thais no longer feel Impelled to declare their own products as foreign-made. Will things change for us too? Well, these are loose strands of stray thoughts anyway.