Winter dresses' sales rise as mercury falls

The sale of winter cloths at shopping centres and second-hand cloth market at Lighthouse and other markets of Karachi, has registered substantial increase as mercury falls in the city. However with the fall of mercury, prices of second-hand clothes have also increased many times. The vendors and dealers are making lot of money, as their clothes are being sold like hot cakes.
"After remaining sluggish sale we are doing fine business these days as the demand for clothes has risen," said a second-hand clothes' dealer. He said that most of the people who shopped at Lunda bazaars belonged to the lower and middle class. "People from the lower and middle class have a preference to purchase used clothes as these are much cheaper than the new ones and their quality is good enough," he added. "The people haggle a lot as they want to buy the best clothes at the lowest prices," said a shopkeeper.
Trades were of the view that sale may increase further if fear of sudden eruption of violence brushed out from minds of customers and they started going out for shopping, because due to eruption of violence recent days, ladies and children preferred to stay at their homes rather than going out for marketing. On the other hand some traders claimed that the number of visitors had registered significant gain in last few days due to fall of mercury.
Some shopkeepers said that both rich and poor people could be seen bargaining with retailers at various markets and weekly bazaars, where woollies, heaps of quilts, quilted bedcovers, blankets and rugs are being sold. Customers, however, complained that second-hand clothes were also becoming expensive and out of their reach. "Prices of new garments are very high and people of lower and middle income group cannot pay for such costly items. They left with no alternative but to buy old clothes for self and children from the Lunda bazaars.
It is impossible for people of average income group to buy a new jacket, pant, shirt, shorts, trouser in the current situation, when daily income of a worker is below Rs 400, while the prices of these items range from Rs 700 to Rs 3,000 and above.