Shoppers return to holiday markets

Holiday Markets at different areas in the capital drew visitors’ attention again after a long shut down as political unrest and Qouta movements.

The crowd was heavier than the previous day as many went there knowing about the makeshift market by the media. Stall owners said they had a better sale on the weakened day.

Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) displayed a variety of products including leather products including jackets, wallets, bags, shoes, women’s attires like dresses, shares, different jute products, decorative showpieces, and even vegetables and live stokes, homemade cakes, sweets and musical instruments.

Apart from this, stalls were also selling different types of rice, pulses, oil, ghee, honey, spices, dried herbs and other medicinal products.

This correspondent visited various popular holiday markets including Agargaon, Motijheel, Banasree, Mirpur Ideal College area, found that these markets abuzz with huge customers.
Stalls at Holiday Market stretched on the wide road from the Tourism Building to the Election Commission Building. This market has been started experimentally on Fridays and Saturdays with the products of SMEs jointly by Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC) and Oikya Foundation.

While talking to this correspondent, Kanya Fashion’s owner Tamannur Poppy said they have been producing clothes for years and selling those online as they could not manage to arrange a shop to showcase their products.
“We had participated in different fairs and that was the only opportunity to bring our products to the general public. This place makes that task easy. Here common people will be able to see the products every week which will boost sales,” she said.

Another SME, Tri-Tech from Hazaribagh in the capital, had a stall that was selling different bags, belts and shoes at Tk500 to Tk6,000. Sales Executive of the stall Arif Faisal said that people are showing interest in their products. “Sales are not high as expected but I think it will increase gradually,” he said.

A seller named Zia came to the market with different kinds of poultry eggs, and birds. He said that their poultry business is running well at a local market in Mohammadpur. “But we thought about opening this stall as the Holiday Market for the small entrepreneur is a new idea. We want our products to be spread out beyond the Mohammadpur area.”

In the market, many entrepreneurs sell their own chocolates, mushroom chips, nadu, chira bhaja. These food products are kept in different quantities in small packages. Along with honey from litchi, mustard, Kalijira, coriander and plum blossoms, many were also selling Sundarbans honey.

Visitors said the Agargaron administration area has already been an attractive place for people living around the area as the newly constructed roads are wide and many mobile vendors sell food items till night. “The Holiday Market is a new attraction for the visitors here. Now we can come here for some shopping along with tasting food items,” said Mosharraf Hossain, a government official.

He, however, claimed that the prices of the goods are higher than what he had expected.