Business activities at second-hand clothes market, commonly known as 'Lunda Baazar', which was supposed to reach its peak during the winter season, has so far remained quite slow due to soaring prices.
The bazaar offers woolies, quilts, curtains, blankets, rugs, trousers, shirts, T-shirts, children wear and jackets. Although the mercury went down, the bazaar presents a deserted look as buyers, usually poor people find it difficult to buy stuff at prices are beyond their reach.
The low income group which is generally attracted to do the winter shopping at lunda bazaars to meet their need of warm clothes has thus been deprived even of this facility because of high inflation.
As a result of present economic slow down majority of people have lost purchasing power and even buying second-hand clothes is not easy anymore. This was observed during a brief visit to lunda baazar here on Thursday.
"I have never been to lunda baazar in the past but the present economic condition has forced me to buy used warm clothes for my children," said Gulnaz, a resident of old Clifton area.
However, many visitors at lunda baazar complained about the high prices. "The prices of blankets are higher as compared to last year," said Mobeen Kausar, a widow of an army official and mother of eight children. "I have no option but to purchase second-hand clothes for my kids because of poverty, she said with tears in her eyes. "This year, the prices have sharply gone up at lunda bazaar". "The blanket, which I bought at Rs 600 last year, is now available at Rs 1200 to Rs 1400," she said.
"I used to spend Rs 1500 every year to buy second-hand clothes for my family but this year, I could not find anything at affordable prices even on my third visit at lunda baazar," said Ashraf Ali, a merchant navy sailor.
"The price spiral has forced people from all walks of life to buy second-hand garments," said Haris Pirzada, a college student.
Traders of second-hand clothes were also of the view that rising inflation and currency depreciation were the major reasons for current lackluster trading activities at the baazar.
"It is now 4 O'clock and I hardly sold 10 warm clothes worth Rs 500," a 60 years old vendor Al-Taj Khan complained while sitting on his pushcart and expressed concern over slow down in purchasing craze among customers.
"It is becoming quiet difficult to run the kitchen as customers are more cautious to spend money even at lunda baazar. Therefore, the trading activities of lunda baazar are mainly moving around the welfare organisations, which are buying second-hand clothes for flood victims," said Abdus Samad, an owner of used carpets stall.
However, the representatives of Pakistan Second-hand Clothes Merchant Association (PSCMA) have claimed that the import of used clothes has significantly surged during current winter.
According to Usman Farooqi, General Secretary PSCMA, the import of second-hand clothes has increased by 30 percent as people from every cluster are now forced to buy second-hand imported garments because of unemployment and high inflation.
"We are presently meeting the rising demand of used clothes from America, Canada, Japan, Korea and other European countries," said Usman.
He also dispelled the impression that the high price of used clothes is one of the major reasons of present decline in trading activities at lunda baazar, saying that the retailers are monopolising the market as the rate of imported garments remained unchanged for several years. "If the government brings this sector under Reformed GST regime then the second-hand clothes would become prohibitive for the masses," Usman warned.