| Eid shopping gaining momentum |
MUSCAT Shopping for Eid Al Adha festival gathered momentum on Wednesday with retail stores, hypermarkets, supermarkets and malls teeming with shoppers, who were making last minute purchases.
High on the shopping list were garments, footwear, cosmetics, perfumes, sweets, chocolates, jewellery and foodstuff. Other commodities high on the shopping list were chocolate and traditional Omani sweets like halwa and baklava. Like the previous years, many retail stores have come out with a slew of special promotions to woo shoppers.
Ruwi High Street was crowded with shoppers. There were traffic jams at various intersections even in the morning hours.
Najwa Al Zaidi, who works in a private educational institution, said that she was keen on completing shopping with her children on Wednesday itself. “Traffic was choc-a-bloc. It took me a lot of time to reach Ruwi from Wattayah roundabout.”
Anis Yusuf, a Bangladeshi electrical engineer, said that since he would be reaching home late on Thursday after work, he wanted to spare at least two hours for purchasing items for Eid Al Adha on Wednesday. “It took more than 40 minutes to reach Ruwi from Mawaleh due to traffic jams at several points on the main road,” he said.
Rajesh Rajput, sales manager in Safeer, said on account of the approaching festival there had been a huge increase in the number of footfalls in Safeer Hypermarket, since the past 10 days. “The rush during the last two days has been even higher as people are rushing in to make last-minute purchases.”
Rajput added that the introduction of the winter sale with discounts between 25 per cent and 75 per cent was an added incentive for Eid shoppers to pick up attractive offerings, especially in garment and shoes section.
“Children and ladies’ garments and fancy shoes have been the most fast moving items, both in terms of sales and volume,” he said.
According to Rajput, a special counter for sales of chocolate, specifically for the purpose of gifting, was doing brisk business. “Many customers, taking advantage of the winter sales discount offers and the approaching winter, are also buying light woolens and baby blankets,” said Rajput.
Mohammed Ibrahim, a customer, said he was buying lots of traditional Omani sweets so that he can offer them to all the guests who visit him during the festival.
At the LuLu Hypermarkets also, all sales counters were crowded with shoppers making purchases of chocolate, perfumes, clothes and gift items. Apart from sweets and confectionery items, there was heavy rush at the counters selling fresh vegetable, fruits, meat, fish and chicken. Eid shoppers also flocked to jewellery shops to pick up gifts for family and loved ones.
Team OT
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