Sales accelerating ahead of Eid al-Adha

People are already crowding stores ahead of Friday, with the İstanbul shopping scene in particular enlivened over the weekend. Major shopping malls are featuring a number of enticing sales campaigns to lure buyers, with sales on outfits dropping by as much as 80 percent. Households that spent very cautiously last year and during the last holiday have been convinced to start buying again, drawn in by tax discounts and sales campaigns. Citizens' confidence only began rebounding after this August, and they're finally opening up their wallets in these final months of 2009.

A family is seen shopping at the Airport Outlet Center in İstanbul for this week’s Eid al-Adha. Major shopping malls are featuring a number of enticing sales campaigns to lure buyers, with prices on outfits dropping by as much as 80 percent.

While wealthier people are choosing to shop at luxury stores in shopping malls, those in the middle and lower income groups are visiting local stores and bazaars. The occurrence of the Eid on Friday this year means that last weekend was a major shopping time as people prepared for the holiday. Shop owners and salespeople report a serious increase in sales over the last holiday season, despite the fact that the previous holiday had also coincided with the start of the new school year, which should have led to more spending. The trend seems to be that those parents who spent money on school supplies instead of themselves last Eid are spending money on themselves as well this holiday season.

Still, higher prices at big shopping malls have led many İstanbulites to seek out better deals at shopping areas in Mahmutpaşa, Merter and Mercan. At these places, people are able to buy new outfits (an Eid al-Adha tradition) for between TL 50 and 70 per person, versus TL 250 a person at shopping malls. Thousands of people went to these cheaper areas over the weekend, with sales increasing by 50 percent in the bazaars and shops which had been relatively empty the previous weeks.

The Mahmutpaşa open bazaar in İstanbul’s Eminönü district attracts a large number of people with low incomes who shop for Eid al-Adha while wealthier people are choosing to shop at luxury stores in shopping malls.

Consumers who in previous years paid attention to brand names when shopping for Eid are now focused on price first and foremost -- leading some chain store outlets to devise special sales campaigns to bring customers in. Depending on their items and the sales trends, some stores offered as much as 16 months of installments on purchases made with credit cards, at no increased price. Well-known names like LC Waikiki and Rodi Mood have launched massive campaigns, with LC Waikiki outlets open 24 hours a day during the six days leading up to Eid al-Adha. Rodi Mood has a “buy one, get one half-price” sale going on. Rodi Mood executive board president Fetin Kazancı, commenting on these strategies, said they expected an increase of 50 percent in their seasonal sales.