Markets Witness Good, Active Turnout Despite Unjust Sanctions

  The economic sanctions imposed on Syria targeting the living of the Syrian people have caused a kind of recession in the markets and a notable decrease in selling-buying activities. Traders and shop keepers have found themselves compelled to continuously search for new solutions to keep attracting consumers, so they adopt the policy of sale and special offers as a means to activate the markets and achieve mutual benefit for  both traders and consumers.

 The hard circumstances created by Western aggressors and their tools in the region have been hitting Syria and its citizens for more than 20 months causing serious damages, particularly to road networks which are often targeted by mercenary terrorists aiming at paralyzing life in the country.

“Despite difficulties, the markets continue to witness good turnout by the Syrians. Traders’ willing to supply the markets with various goods wasn’t also affected,” Abou Mazen, a cloth trader at al-Hamedeyya Souk told SANA. He pointed out that though some goods don’t arrive on time and the fare of transferring  goods grew higher, people’s appetite to buy their needs continue at a good level.

The same view was expressed by Abou Adnan, a fish dealer, who is keen to get fresh fish from the Coastal area or the Euphrates despite their high price. “Traders face obstacles in transferring their goods to main markets in internal cities because of the terrorist attacks which led to an increase in the fare of transferring goods and caused traders to pay extra money,” he said, stressing this “will not stop us.”

Touring Damascus markets, shoppers notice that all kinds of goods are available though their prices are high and different from a market to another. Traders attribute this problem to the type of customers and to shops’ fare.

 Abou Jihad, a vegetables seller, stressed that all kinds of vegetables and fruits are available in the markets with relatively acceptable prices, noting that price increase has benefited the farmers and traders who used to sell their goods “cheaply” in the past.

 Rana, a wear designer, said “the hard economic circumstances, the Syrians are currently experiencing, have deprived some citizens from buying luxurious goods and expensive clothes, pushing them to find alternatives such as tailoring.”

According to her, the increase in the prices of ready wears has enhanced people’s turnout on tailor shops. Many of her limited-income clients also tended to fix their old clothes or add to them new touches so as to appear new with a minimum cost in order to save the money to buy  more important things.

 Riham, a young woman, told SANA as she was doing her shopping in a foreign wear shop, that the increase of basic materials prices makes the interest in buying imported clothes as a kind of luxury. “Visiting such shops can be done only at the beginning of the month when salaries are still available,” she pointed out.

Um Tawfeek, a lady shopper, stressed that she can buy her clothes from less expensive markets, particularly the popular ones where traders’ profit rate is rational.

“Some economic figures working in the domains of wears and shoes are keen to invent new methods to attract customers such as adopting the policy of sale and special offers,” according to Yaser, a shoes shop keeper. He pointed out that he moved his shop from Aleppo to Damascus to continue his work, attract new customers and maintain the quality of his goods.

Owner of a wear agency at al-Hamra street, a Damascus shopping Center, said “To keep working, we need to adapt ourselves to the current circumstances and to deal with medium-income customers by implementing a sale policy that attracts more shoppers and achieves an acceptable range of profits.

Abdul Qader, a  wear shop keeper at al-Hamra Street, said prices remained normal despite the increase of prices of basic materials caused by the ups and downs of the US dollar’s price. He pointed out that wear markets witness normal movement and good turnout particularly at the end of each month.

Um Kamal, a shopper, said that she regularly goes shopping at al-Hamra Center as it contains the trendy wears she and her daughters need though they are very costly.

A perfume shop keeper at al-Hamra stressed that the turnout to buy this kind of goods has decreased, pointing out that this recession didn’t make him think of closing his shop or increasing his goods prices.

In this context, Mu’az, a cellular phones trader, said the decrease of the (SYP) purchase price has upped mobile phones prices, particularly high-tech ones, at about 20-50 percent. He stressed that the turnout to buy this kind of phones hasn’t been so affected as some regular customers continue to change their mobiles from time to time when a new and more developed generation of mobile phones is introduced to the markets.

H. Moustafa