Cold snap triggers spike in sale of warm clothing

The sale of new and used warm clothes has shot up in the Sukkur, Khairpur, Jaccababad, Shikarpur, Ghotki, Noushehroferoze and other districts of northern Sindh.

All kinds of warm clothes like gloves, woollen hats, mufflers, pullovers, sweater-shirts and jackets are seen hanging in front of shops and stalls situated in different localities.

Crowds of people can be seen bargaining with retailers in markets and weekly bazaars, besides woollies, heaps of quilts, bed covers, blankets and rugs are up for sale as well.

Chilly weather especially at night for the last 15 days has forced the people to buy winter clothes and other necessary items in a sudden wave of cold in the city. Heaps of used quilts, blankets and rugs are also up for sale in the different markets of Sukkur. A visitor Bashir Ahmed said that an almost 25 per cent rise in prices has been observed in the prices of winter clothes compared to last year. The vendors and dealers are doing brisk business as their clothes are selling like hotcakes. “Our business is going very well these days as the demand for winter clothes has risen,” Saien Dad Qureshi, a used dressing dealer at Shahi Bazaar said.

Many other dealers and stall-holders have heaved a sigh of relief as the cold has sparked frenzied shopping. “Our sale has doubled and we are expecting that in the days ahead it will go up further,” claimed another dealer at station road.

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All kinds of clothing and accessories like gloves, woollen hats, mufflers, pullovers, sweatshirts, and jackets can be seen hanging in front of shops attracting people. But customers are becoming more and choosier while purchasing the used clothing.They not only select clothes which are best in quality but also try to get these at nominal rates,” Waseem Ahmed, a shop owner at a Mehran Markaz in Sukkur.

Waseem said that people nowadays are aware of the value of international brands and pick up slightly used items of top clothing brands. The traders buy lots measured in weight and then sort men, women, children clothing. “Some buyers have an eye for the quality product in heaps of used dressing, they pick it like a hawk and haggle with the shopkeeper to extract a low price,” he explained.

He said that some people even try to bargain at fixed-price shops. Many throng to various bazaars to find clothes that are both utilitarian and cheaper.

In Khairpur, the Lunda bazaars offer the poor cheap clothes,” remarked a middle-aged looking man at Station Road Khairpur. “The price of new winter clothing is out of our reach. Therefore, we rush to these second-hand cloth- stalls where we get quality clothes at affordable rates,” he added.

New and expensive clothes were out of our reach due to financial constraints, though it was a difficult task to find suitable clothes for children so they opted to purchase used clothes, another buyer Zahra said. “Sometimes, we are lucky enough to find new and unused factory items,” she added

But many customers complained that second-hand clothes were also becoming expensive. “The prices of used clothes are spiralling every year,” commented a lady in a Lunda bazaar of Ghotki.

However, Javed Ahmed, a used clothes dealer said that they were getting these clothes at exorbitant prices from wholesale dealers in Quetta and Karachi and were forced to sell them accordingly. APP

Published in The Express Tribune, January 13^th, 2024.