Flag sales fall two-thirds

Two days before Independence Day, Flag sellers in Lahore are still waiting for customers.

LAHORE: Two days before Independence Day, the traders of the city are still waiting for customers to purchase national flags and other accessories associated with the event.

The turnover from the sale of goods related to the Independence Day has dropped by two-thirds, traders told The Express Tribune. They estimated that this year they would be able to make sales worth Rs3 million only, compared to last year’s Rs9 million.    They said that about 70 per cent of the stock was still lying in their warehouses because of the low demand.

Zahid Baig, owner of Billa Decorators at Gunpat Road, said that some of his regular buyers belonged to the flood-hit areas of Multan, Dera Ghazi Khan and Peshawar. He said he earned more than Rs60,000 last year by selling 0.1 million buntings, 30,000 flags and 20,000 other items to these buyers.

Zeeshan Haider, owner of Ravi printers in Urdu Bazaar, said that flood and diversion of public attention towards relief efforts were not alone responsible for the low sales. “People are just not that patriotic today as they used to be,” he said. He, however, rejected that the current recession was due to the high prices. He said that the traders had set prices at nominal level to ensure sale. “The policy has not yet delivered,” he added.

Tanveer Rizvi, owner of Tanveer decorators at Anarkali, said that he had set up five roadside stalls at the Circular Road in view of the good earnings he made from the business last year. “I earned Rs70,000 last year. This time around, there are no customers,” he said.“Maybe, they are more interested in spending money on flood relief efforts,” he remarked.

Fahad Zia, the Awami Anjuman-e-Tajran Circular Road secretary, had another explanation for the low sales this year. He said that the bulk of their sales went to political parties and public and private schools. While some schools had made purchases, he said, the political parties and their activists have not yet shown eagerness to purchase the goods this year.“I sold around 100,000 flags last year compared to only 60,000 this year,” he said.

Another shopkeeper said that town nazims used to make bulk purchases to decorate their constituencies. This year, he said, the local administration had not shown the same interest in decorating their areas.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 12^th, 2010.