Sabbir Alam Babu, Bhola

Old winter clothes are the hope of the lower classes in the clothing shops in Bhola Bazar. Buyers are thronging there to buy winter clothes. As the price is relatively lower than the market, low and middle income class buyers can easily buy clothes there.

Buyers flock to the old clothing shops of the open bazaar after evening to buy their favorite clothes within their means. However, the sellers say that the number of buyers is a little less as the winter has not fully set in yet. On the other hand, buyers say that the prices of these products in the open market are higher than last year. It is known that these winter clothes coming from abroad were collected from Chittagong and brought to Bhola by the traders.

Traders have to buy them as sacks. Each sack contains at least 100 garments. These clothes include chotters, coats, genjis, jackets, tracksuits, trousers, baby suits, mixer genjis, bellbets and various clothes for men, women and children. And among them winter clothes are the most.

These old clothes shops are sitting in the Natur Bazar Kabi Mozammel Haque Town Hall Square of the city. There are different sizes and types of clothes starting from 50 taka to 1000 taka.

Tailoring and ironing facilities are available next to these old clothes shops. After buying the clothes, the customers can get the clothes sized and ironed according to their needs. After all, looking at them doesn't mean that something old has been made to look like this.

Abbas, a buyer who came from Nabipur to buy old clothes, said that he had come to buy some winter clothes for himself and his family. It used to cost 3-4 thousand taka to buy these clothes from the market. But cannot afford to buy at such a price.

So I came to buy these clothes from the open market. Harun, another customer said, winter has started. So I am already buying winter clothes. But the price is slightly higher than last year. Nipa Rani, a resident of Kalibari Road area, has come to buy winter clothes for three family members. He said, it is not possible to buy from the market. So I came to buy cheap clothes. Fairly good quality clothes are available here.

Another buyer, Siraj, said that the rate at which the price of daily goods has increased, we are already out of shape, including clothes! I will buy from where I can buy at a low price. So I came to buy old clothes in the open market. Sellers Bappi, Suman and Sabuj said that winter has not yet fallen. So the number of buyers and sales are less. As the winter increases, the buying and selling will increase. But this time we have to sell at a higher price as the price of the clothes made in the wholesale market is a bit higher.

Last year, the price of a sack of cloth was 22,000 taka. This time it has increased to 30 thousand taka. So we have to sell at a higher price. Now the buying and selling is going down a bit. Hopefully the sales will increase as the winter progresses.

Then there will be more pressure on the buyers. Mahbubur Rahman, senior observer of Bhola Meteorological Department, said that the severity of winter is slowly increasing.

The minimum temperature on Sunday was 15.5 degrees Celsius. The temperature will drop further from next month.