Middle class also flocks to sidewalk shops amid Eid shopping frenzy. Photo : BSS

By Md Mamun Islam

RANGPUR, March 23, 2025 (BSS) - As Eid-ul-Fitr approaches and knocks on the door, the shopping frenzy grips the city like elsewhere across the country.
 
Brisk business is going on from the sidewalks of various busy intersections in the city to the elite and aristocratic shopping malls, super markets, sales centres and departmental shops, which are decorated with colorful lights.
 
At the same time, many floating hawkers have set up temporary tables and arranged stalls of various types of clothing and other Eid items across the city’s main streets.

Many of them are selling various types of clothing in rickshaw-vans. Along with the lower class, the middle class is also rushing to these shops on the sidewalks.
 
Hawkers have arranged stalls of various types of clothing, including clothes, sandals, shoes, pants-shirts, three-pieces, sarees, lungis, punjabis, children’s clothes, hats, perfumes and more on both sides of the street from the city's Grand Hotel intersection to the Town Hall premises.
 
Not only on that road, but also in the shops centered on the sidewalks of various areas of the city, including Station Road, Medical intersection, Hareepatti Road and CO Bazar where Eid bazaars have gathered with busy sales in these shops.
 
Most of the buyers are from the lower and lower middle classes. The middle class is also running on the sidewalk.
 
Talking to BSS, Abdul Haque, who is selling clothes in a rickshaw-van on the sidewalk in front of the Paira Chattar, said many people think that low-quality clothes are sold on the sidewalk. This idea is not entirely correct.
 
“Good quality clothes are also available here. We have no lighting bill, no shop rent. Even if we sell clothes for a reasonable profit, it is okay. That is why our buyers are not only the lower class, but many middle class people also come to buy clothes,” he said.
 
Youth Fazlul Haque, a cloth seller on the sidewalk in front of the city's Raja Ram Mohan market, said, "Sales have been good for a few days”.
 
“Our business operating costs are much lower than in elite shopping malls and markets. That is why we can sell many good quality products at affordable prices. This also satisfies the buyers," he said.
 
“As a result, people from the lower and middle classes like us are interested in buying things from sidewalks and hawkers,” he added.
 
On the sidewalk at the Supermarket intersection, Hamidur Rahman, an official of a non-governmental development organization, said many middle-class people like him shop from shops adjacent to sidewalks or ordinary markets.
 
“Like every year, I have come to buy some clothes for my wife and children and some relatives too. The prices are within reach in the sidewalk shops this time,” he said.
 
Mohammad Ali is selling shirts and pants from a three-wheeled van in the city's Paira Chattar intersection area.
 
When asked, Ali said that trading mainly starts after noon. Sales increase after evening.
 
Restaurant workers Farhad Hossain and Abdul Alim said, “We are poor people. Even if we want, we cannot go to the bigger or aristocratic markets or shopping malls to shop. Attractive products are available at low prices in sidewalk shops.”
 
Mohibur Rahman is doing business on the sidewalk at the Jahaj Company intersection in the city.
 
He said, "Many seasonal hawkers like me sell their products in mobile vans every year before Eid-ul-Fitr. Therefore, competition is increasing on the sidewalks as well. As a result, prices are low and affordable for all classes of people."
 
Housewife Mansura Khatun, a resident of Mistripara in the city, said, "If you want to buy anything between Taka 200 and Taka 500, you can surely find it at the sidewalk shops.”
 
“In the elite shopping malls and markets, clothes are usually not available for less than Taka 1,500 and Taka 2,000. That is why the lower and middle class people like us shop from these sidewalks and ordinary markets,” she said.
 
Housewife Selina Begum said, “When you visit sidewalk shops, you can see that children's clothes are available for Taka 100 and Taka 150 or a little more. Young people can get all kinds of clothes for Taka 500 to Taka 800."
 
Rangpur Chamber President Md Akbar Hossain told BSS that the hawkers are also doing a very good business along with the traders in the shopping malls, super markets and other aristocrat sales centres this year.