Frenzied rush seen at malls for readymade garments

People head to malls as tailors say not sure if clothes will be delivered on time

ISLAMABAD: With only 20 days left for Eidul Fitr there seems to be a frenzied rush to shopping malls all over the country as people go on a wild shopping spree to buy everything for themselves and their families.

Many outlets are offering hefty discounts on readymade garments and people are thronging to them to get the best deal. These days, with a heavy rush at tailoring shops and without the certainty that clothes will be delivered on time, people prefer to go for readymade garments at shopping malls. Ready-made clothes also save time as people do not have to venture out in the scorching heat in Ramazan to have them stitched.

With the largest festival drawing ever-nearer, shoppers are coming to various markets and browsing through the latest outfit designs, a customer Ali Musa said.

The owner of an outfit shop said all the shopping centres have now started their late night sittings after the passage of first Ashra (ten-days) of Ramazan and more and more customers with kids are coming to his shop to buy dresses for their children as a priority. Usama Ali an owner of an outlet said they have a wide array of accessories to fit people of all ages specially for kids. Nowadays childrens’ items are in a great demand, because every family, whatever its economic position, prefers to buy something for their young ones, he added.

Zeeshan Ahmad said he came all the way from Peshawar to purchase ready-made kurtas for Eid because not a single tailor was ready to stitch my clothes in my village as he just arrived home from Saudi Arabia" he said.

"I can buy a ready-made kurta for Rs1,800 whereas unstitched clothes cost as much as Rs2,500."

The sale of ready-made garments has been increasing with the start of Ramazan This is because tailors stop booking further orders to stitch the cloths due to excessive workload, he added. Traders said the sale of ready-made garments increases by 50 to 90% in last weeks of Ramazan

Many garment outlets have displayed various ready-made clothes on sale ahead of Eid in order to sell out stocks, a working girl Javeria Saud said.

Severe rush of customers was witnessed at shops with such discounts, she added. However, as we live in an age of digital technology shopping has become easier as whatever one wants whether it be food household items or clothes one can be order it online and young people mostly prefer to use the internet from the comfort of their couch to order whatever suits their fancy. This saves to avoid long frustrating traffic jams and flooding crowd in shopping malls and markets.

Haniyyah, a college student, said, "It has become really easy to shop online. I ordered two dresses yesterday, by choosing them from a facebook page and today I received the delivery at my door step."  

Published in The Express Tribune, May 27^th, 2018.