Tailor's shops in Doha have seen a seasonal surge in demand over the past few weeks as many families are getting ready for the new school years set to start on Sunday next week.
Local Arabic daily Arrayah reported that most of these tailors have almost doubled their efforts to be able to deliver the orders they already have before the start of schools. They stressed that the new school year is considered one of the top seasons for their business and some shops even have to hire more workers during this time to meet the rising demand. The demand is particularly high from among government school students, where the thobe (Qatari men's traditional dress). Usually a tailor's shop receives around 20-30 orders a day during this period with the parents ordering three to six thobes for each of their children. Most shops charge around QR 50-70 per thobe according to the type of fabric. However, there is some top quality fabric varieties that cost QR120- 170 a thobe due to the excellent quality.
Nassruldeen Mohamed, tailor, said that his shop has stock a considerable quality of fabric from all types ahead of the start of the season so it would suit the different budgets of various families. He said that over the past few months of the summer holidays there was very little business but as the start of the new school year comes closers business started to flourish again. However, he urged customers to avoid hurrying the delivery process and give the tailor adequate time to do them a good job. He said that the process could take a couple of days to three days to deliver the order of a customer, especially that his shop is working with its full capacity and six workers are working hard to meet the required deadlines. Besides, his shop has kept a good number of readymade thobes of different sizes at reasonable prices ranging from QR40- 60 for those who prefer quick and economic options.
Najib Ahmed, director of a tailor's shop, said that in spite of the increasing demand during this period, most tailors' shops across the country have kept their charges and price almost the same as before even though the cost of fabric have increased. All this is part of their efforts to retain their customers and avoid losing them to other competitors at the local market. He said that during the peak of this season, his workers often work overtime to avoid any delays in delivery.
Mohamed Yassin, tailor, stressed that he considers the new school year season as much better the Eid holidays seasons, as demand in this season increases considerably and compensate the shop for the other period of slowed or slump business.
