“Everything about shopping for Eid in Dhaka revolves around the New Market” - this used to be a fact, even a few years ago.
While this has little truth in it because the rising affluence in the middle class coupled with a change in taste has changed scenarios massively in Dhaka. The malls and arcades in Dhaka have seen a bigger turnout of the middle class than New Market during Eid in the last decade.
This was far from the truth in Chattogram in the last decade. At least, the middle class would still prefer places like Riazuddin Bazar or Tedi Bazar, the city's two of the busiest spots, for Eid shopping.
However, Chattogram has experienced a major shift in the Eid shopping culture with the arrival of fancy brands in recent years.
The middle-class people are now flocking more to luxurious malls and posh arcades such as Finlay square, Sanmar, New Market and Bali Arcade etc and less to their usual destinations like Riazuddin Bazar or Tedi Bazar.
More importantly, the clothing brands have gained more popularity and local tailors started losing demand. This year, it has become more evident as many owners had to shut down their tailor shops due to the lack of orders.
Apart from Tedi Bazar, which is famous for tailor outlets, there's a common phenomenon in every local tailor shop - laying off workers, slowing down of business or complete shutdown.
Nasir Uddin, the owner of a famous Punjabi tailor shop in the city's Anderkilla, has expressed his concerns with the scribe this way, "I have been here since 1998, and have gone through highs and lows of this business. But this is possibly the worst we could face disregarding the Covid-19 period.”
“Usually, we had to wrap up orders inside the 5th Ramadan, but this year, we are still accepting orders and some of my workers moved to garment factories in search of greater facilities because we can't pay them the needful. We had to lay off half of our workers due to lack of orders," added Mr Nasir Uddin.
Tareq Ahmed, another tailor shop owner at Tedi Bazar, has the same view and raised his concerns over the change of culture.
"I think this is because young people are now embracing clothing brands more than ever," he said.
Ferdous Tailor's —which is the largest outlet in the area— has faced a similar situation and the owner echoed the same.
Although the culture change was imminent, this is the result of a pile of events and the writer discussed the phenomenon with some locals of Chattogram to find out the forces behind the cultural shift.
Zohaan Abdullah Al Mahmud is a student at the Department of Economics, University of Dhaka (DU), who is originally from Chattogram, thinks people in Chattogram have learned to save time and energy.
"People prefer to avoid hassles of tailoring these days and pay a few extra bucks as an avoidance cost," Zohaan believes.
"I have seen multiple outlets of these tailors being shut down in the last couple of years and this happened after the influx of popular brands to the city," Zohaan adds.
When asked whether this is a change for the better or not, Zohaan enthusiastically replied, "This is the part of the transition that every city has to go through, and probably a step further from conservatism but this comes at a substantial cost, deceleration of an Eid shopping culture that ruled for decades."
Mahmudul Hasan Tipu, another student from the Department of International Relations of the University of Chittagong, has shared his views about the cultural shift.
"I would personally visit the malls and arcades for the male clothes. But for women, the scenario remains the same since they still have to visit Tedi Bazar, which is still a popular shopping spot."
He also sees middle-class people visiting malls instead of regular go-to-places due to a cultural shift and attributes the phenomenon to the increased awareness among the youths in the city.
"Most of the young people nowadays visit malls to avoid the uncertainty over prices. Because several brands now entered the market, they compete with each other and set a justified price for each product. Hence, it has become an easy choice for the youths."
Abdur Rahman Rafid, a final year student at Dhaka University, shared his opinion about the cultural shift. Rafid thinks that Chattogram being a business hub has something to do with the swift shift in culture.
“Apart from notable facilities that brands offer including ease of exchange, trial and decent environment, I think innovation is something that attracts people a lot."
Whatever may be the cause, the change was inevitable as people’s financial ability and taste are being the subject of constant change.
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