Roadside shops resort for ordinary people

“Eksho, Eksho, Jai Nen Eksho!” (“100, 100, whatever you take 100!”).

This loud yet rhythmic chorus overshadowed to some extent the high-pitched honking of vehicles passing the busy Farmgate intersection.

Be it night or day, the area reverberates with the loud chorus of hawkers trying to sell a wide array of commodities on a long stretch of pavements.

While the capital's shiny shopping arcades are abuzz with shoppers making an array of lavish, trendy and fancy buys just a couple of days before Eid-ul-Fitr, these makeshift stalls on footpaths are also bustling with customers, mostly low-income groups, from morning to late at night.

“The number of customers we are getting over the last few days is giving us encouragement. We hope sales will be good before Eid,” said Jashim, who was selling shirts amid a cacophony of traders in front of Farmview Super Market yesterday.

These unlicensed street vendors, or hawkers, sell low-cost shirts, T-shirts, panjabis, sarees, lungis, salwar kameezes, cosmetics, footwear, utensils and household items. Any kind of merchandise that is sold here is cheap.

They said due to the long holiday this year starting Friday, they had expected a slight fall in the number of customers. However, that did not happen and this gave them confidence.

These hawkers annoy pedestrians by narrowing down a major portion of the footpaths, yet they are an integral part of one of the biggest spending seasons in the country.

“The best part of our business is that every second someone walks by on the footpath and many of them become our customers,” said Abul Hashem.

He was selling panjabis of a myriad of colours and qualities at different prices keeping those on a wooden box on the pavement of Farmview Super Market. Some of those he sold at Tk 300 per piece and others, whose quality was “better”, at Tk 400.

“The sale is good so far,” he said.

A few feet away, Md Ripon was selling T-shirts at Tk 150. “Take this one. The quality is good,” he told a customer who was going through a pile.

The customer picked one and offered to pay Tk 100. Ripon refused. “We cannot allow them to bargain,” he said.

Taking a stroll on the pavement with a friend, restaurant worker Shafique made his way through the crowds until he found a panjabi which he eventually bought for Tk 400.

“I looked for a panjabi in nearly all of these footpath shops and finally got one. Its quality is good,” he said.

Marzina, a housewife, was looking for a dress at the shops near the Tejgaon College for her four-year-old daughter.

“The price is low, but I do not know whether I have to gamble on the quality,” she said.

The vendors said they are hoping to get more customers on chand raat (the night before Eid) as people like rickshaw-pullers, cobblers, transport workers, street vendors and day labourers wait till that night to save up enough money.

Whatever the status of the shops, many shoppers come and shop happily. “We come here as we get many things at an affordable price,” said Solaiman, a customer.