Looking for the best offer and good opportunities
The holy month is almost coming to an end and only a few days separate us from the feast of Eid, Tunisians are preparing, as usual, to celebrate it as it should be, preparation of typical Tunisian homemade pastry for some and purchase of new clothes, especially for children.
During the last week of the month of Ramadan, the souks, the ready-to-wear shops concentrated in the city center are remarkably crowded during the day and even after the breaking of the fast. Some families devote their Ramadan evenings to accompanying their children and window shopping to find clothes that they like for the occasion.
We were in downtown Tunis at the beginning of last week, during the morning, to see how Tunisians are preparing to welcome the Aid festival and to deal with the excessive expenses of these events which they want to celebrate perfectly despite everything. The shops located in the heart of the Medina are experiencing a remarkable influx of customers, of all ages, looking for suitable items and outfits for the Eid celebration: parents, accompanying their grandchildren, stop in front of certain windows which offer more or less affordable prices for shoes, sweaters, jackets and dresses for little girls, young people, in pairs or groups, go from one shop to another, compare the prices offered, hesitate to choose the piece that suits them and take their time to decide.
Nour and Nadia, two young students we met during our walk in the souk of the medina, have chosen this year to move towards mid-range ready-to-wear shops, for lack of means. “Usually we go to the trendy shops downtown to find super trendy and good quality pieces. But since the prices we offer on the items on display have become beyond our reach, following the economic crisis, we headed to the souks and some other second-hand shops that offer interesting offers at more or less affordable prices. », notes Nour before his girlfriend Nadia adds that there is a choice compared to what we offer as trendy pieces in these shops.
“Personally, I opted for a sporty style outfit, made up of wide jeans at 40 dinars, sneakers at 60 dinars and I’m still hesitating about the sweater and the jacket. The price-performance ratio is satisfactory. There is not really a big difference between what is sold in the shops in the city center and what is offered in the shops in the souk, apart from the glaring difference in prices, “explains the student. We left the two young girls who continued their purchases quietly and we went to another customer who was accompanied by her two daughters. The latter, still high school students, are also looking for pretty fashionable clothes adapted to their style as young girls. “Frankly, with excessive spending throughout the holy month, going to the luxury boutiques to buy one or two pieces has become impossible with the budget reserved for it. But we still try to look for pieces that will be suitable but at more or less acceptable prices,” explains the lady. And to add: “Like every year, I reserve a budget of 400 dinars for the purchase of Eid clothes for my two daughters. We went through some stores and tried to be clever to manage the budget well and choose pieces that were cheaper than those offered in other stores aimed at young people”.
Faced with this situation and the high cost of living, Tunisians manage as best they can to be able to get by and still get some pleasures, please their children in order to celebrate this sacred event as it should be. . Clever, they miss no opportunity to take advantage of the best offer and interesting opportunities.