With a change in the weather, the sale of winter clothes including the second-hand ones particularly in the ‘Lunda Bazaars’ has seen a rise in the twin cities of Islamabad and Rawalpindi. All kinds of wears and accessories including gloves, woolen hats, mufflers, pullovers, sweater shirts and jackets can be seen hanging in front of stalls, shops in weekly bazaars, attracting the customers.
Muhammad Ramazan, a customer at the Faizabad landa stalls, said on Monday that the prices of new winter wears were out of customer’s reach. “We, therefore, have turned to second-hand clothes stalls, where quality clothes are available at affordable rates”, he added.
Stall of winter clothes and sales points of shoes can be witnessed mushrooming every day at Aabpara Market, Melody Market, Super Market, Jinnah Super Market, Sittara Market, Peshawar Morr, Karachi Company, Faizabad, Commercial Market, Sadiqabad Chowk, Raja Bazaar and at many other big shopping malls and markets of the twin cities.
Many people throng to weekly bazaars and lunda bazaars to buy clothes at cheaper rates. “The poor people get warm clothes from Lunda Bazaars at very cheap prices,” said Saeed Khan, at a stall in the G-9 Weekly Bazaar. But many customers complained that second-hand clothes were also becoming expensive. The prices of used clothes are spiraling every year, commented a shopper at weekly bazaar.
However, a second-hand clothe-dealer said that they were getting these clothes at exorbitant prices from wholesale dealers in Lahore and Karachi and were forced to sell them accordingly.
Secondhand shirts, trousers, sweaters and pullovers are mainly imported from the USA, the UK, Japan and European countries and blankets, carpets, rugs, shoes, overcoats and jackets from South Korea, Japan and China, Shah Muhammad, the dealer added.