C T Online Desk: The sale of warm clothes and blankets is gaining momentum across the country as winter sets in.
Warm cloth sales have soared in recent weeks due to the onset of winter and fog sweeping across the country.
Shopping malls, shops, and makeshift shops are packed with people buying winter clothes.
In the capital, seasonal traders and shoppers began stockpiling and selling warm clothes and blankets, including second-hand ones, in shopping malls, shops, and on footpaths.
The time of year is also the time for many people to gather at tailoring shops to make warm clothing, such as suits and blazers.
Visiting different permanent and makeshift shops, this correspondent found people of different income groups crowding to buy warm clothes to stave off the biting wave of winter.
Mostly low-income customers are rushing to footpaths and roadside shops at Gulistan, Baitul Mukarram National Mosque, Paltan, Motijheel, Badda, Natunbazar, Farmgate, Sadarghat, Mohammadpur, Mirpur-12 and Mirpur-10.
According to Mominul Islam, a trader at Mohammadpur, “We have already started selling warm clothes, but our sales have yet to pick up. Sales will increase from the last week of December.”
Limited-income people were seen buying warm clothes at a cheaper rate from the makeshift markets. Some of them are searching for second-hand ones at cheaper rates.
The correspondent visited Mirpur-10 on Wednesday and Thursday and found different types of sweaters, jackets, and blankets being sold.
A government employee shopping for winter clothes in the Mirpur-10 area, Rafikul Alam, told the Daily Sun that he bought three jackets for himself, one for his wife, and two for his children.
The prices of most warm clothes have jumped indiscriminately and went beyond people’s purchasing power.
Dhaka is currently experiencing the taste of winter, as light cold weather accompanied by fog has been covering different parts of the city at night and in the morning.
Especially in the northern region, people in rural areas are experiencing the bite of winter amid cold weather and fog.
The winter season in Bangladesh lasts only two months (December and January). However, from November to February is the winter season in the country.
“The northern region of the country has started to experience winter since the beginning of November,” said Hafizur Rahman, a meteorologist at the Bangladesh Meteorological Department (BMD).
Several mild to moderate cold waves could impact northern, northeast, and central regions in December, according to the BMD’s three-month forecast.
According to the report, two to three mild-to-moderate cold waves will sweep across the country in January, while two of them may turn severe (4 to 6 degrees Celsius).
It was a relatively warm winter last year, which didn’t set in even after the end of November.
The winter, however, is beginning to spread across the country gradually this year, starting in the northern region from the second week of November.
A temperature of 33.2 degrees Celsius was recorded in Cox’s Bazar on Saturday, while 12 degrees Celsius was recorded in Tetulia.
