MUSCAT: With the holy month of Ramadhan to begin on March 23 in Oman, malls and other retailers have launched promotional packages to woo the customers with an array of products for the citizens and expatriate communities.
While the traditional souq in Muttrah are decorated with lanterns, frankincense and decorative items, the shopping malls have once-in-a-year discount programmes and automotive companies boast of rare schemes to own the vehicles of their choice.
Hypermarkets and supermarkets of various grades have already begun to decorate items required for the holy month days before the announcement of Ramadhan beginning arrived.
"We have launched a never-before offer for essentials, food items mostly, and dates and perfumes and garments in the offer, to receive most of the clients," said the GM of a leading hypermarket chain.
He said that the chain's largest annual turnover comes from the business of just one month that will compensate any mo the of low-business season in the year, which is the summer vacation and school holidays seasons.
"We have started to witness people in large numbers at our various departments since last week as the holy month is about to begin in after a week and only two weekends are left before they could purchase essentials in bulk quantities," a representative of a leading mall told the Observer.
Automotive companies have, on the other hand, charted out various EMI plans and service, resale packages.
"Anyone who desired to buy a car from us can do so during the Ramadhan days because we have attractive loan repay plans, free service for five years and other packages tailor-made for the occasion," an automotive representative said.
Companies specialised in fruits and vegetables, two products which has Himalayan demand in Ramadhan, have already placed orders to source more of the products in view of the demand.
"Ramadhan is the only month we have great demand for our fruits and vegetables and it is applicable to both locally sourced ones and imported ones. In view of this, we have placed heavy orders for procuring huge quantities of the same in the coming days," a representative from Suhol Al Fayha, the largest Omani trader in fresh fruits and vegetables told the Observer.
Prices under radar:
However, the Consumer Protection Authority (CPA) has made it clear that prices are strictly monitored and any unwarranted price hike will be questioned.
"So far, the demand is stable and we are strictly monitoring and at times, checking the retailers for assuring quality and price. Once the demand goes up, we will be constantly following up with the trends and if there is any scarcity of any products, it should be brought to our attention before hiking the price failing of which will attract penalties," a CPA representative said.
He further said that inspection teams are visiting the retail outlets to ascertain if measurements and quantity and quality are applied across various levels and no retail outlet is allowed to hike prices of necessities without prior approval from the Authority.
Meetings were held with the management of the various retail outlets and hypermarkets and ways to streamline prices of essentials were sought.
The CPA has formed many special teams under the Chairman and visited the shopping malls as well as retail outlets in the country in order to find out the availability of goods and to ensure prices under control and to educate the suppliers to continue to adhere to the laws and decisions issued by the Authority.
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