Eid shopping picks up in Peshawar

PESHAWAR: Eid shopping spree of traditional bangles and henna has reached its climax with a great number of buyers — mostly girls and youth — being witnessed on these stalls in city markets.

The youth, girls and women buyers in droves are being seen at stalls and shops of readymade clothes, henna and bangles in the lucrative markets of Peshawar, where shopping activities reached its peak on Friday.

The distribution and exchange of bangles and henna as gifts among the girls on Eid is an old tradition of Peshawar, which is adding a unique colour to Eid celebrations.

Colorful henna and bangles stalls were set up by shopkeepers in all main markets like Deans Trade Centre, Gora Bazaar, Meena Bazaar, CT Tower, Hashnagri, Firdaus, Tehkal, Hayatabad and other important locations in the city, offering varieties of gleaming bangles, cosmetics, embroidered clothes, jewellery, handbags, shoes and colorful dresses as special offer for Eid.

Shopkeepers selling daily use items and booksellers have also set up additional stalls of bangles and henna to cash on the profitable situation.

Samina Khan, a girl busy shopping at Gora Bazaar, told APP that she has come here from Nowshera to buy bangles sets and henna for herself, relatives and friends.

“I have bought 20 sets of bangles and henna and would use them during Eid days to look stylish,” she said.

She said buying shimmering glass bangles matched with beautiful colours of her readymade dresses and decorated hands and feet with henna were essential features of Eid festivities.

“This is the cheapest way of taking along friends and relatives as one can buy a full set of quality matching bangles and henna for less than Rs200.”

Sidra Bibi, a resident of Wapda Town who came along with her father for shopping at Saddar Bazaar, said bangles and henna always fascinated her, and without it, “my Eid would seem incomplete”.

She said matching bangles with clothes and shoes were her first priority in Eid shopping and would come on ‘chand raat’ to decorate her hands by henna specialists.

“It is difficult to go out shopping during Ramazan and with kitchen work but I will step out to buy imported bangles and henna on ‘chand raat’, which will add to my joy,” she said.

Keeping in view the high profit rates in Peshawar, many people of other districts have set up makeshift stalls to fully exploit the money-minting opportunity.

Unemployed labourers have established temporary stalls to sell bangles, henna and artificial jewellery as they know these items are high in demand for Eid.

The shopkeepers said when people can pay more at beauty parlors, boutiques and shoe stores and to tailors and for other services for Eid then their complaints about increased prices of readymade clothes, henna and bangles were unjustified. They expect the sale to go further up on ‘chand raat’.

The shopkeepers have demanded deployment of police personnel, especially female constables, in all major shopping centres, arcades and streets for the security of shoppers on the last days of Ramazan and on Eid days.