Tailors decry low patronage, as yuletide approaches

tailor

Some tailors in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), on Tuesday, decried low patronage, as yuletide season approaches.

Some of the tailors, attributed the poor patronage to the current economic recession that had affected the prices of goods and services.

A few others too attributed it to the new preference for ready made clothes, as against the ones sewn by local tailors.

Umar Mohammed, a tailor at the Garki ultra modern market, said the patronage was lower that of the previous years, when customers would flood his shop, months before the Christmas and new year celebrations.

“The increase in the value of dollar as against the naira has also affected us because in the past, my customers from Kaduna, Jos and other places, would have brought their clothes earlier to avoid disappointment.

“But as you can see, Christmas is less than six weeks and we have just a few clothes to sew,’’ he said.

Mohammed, however, expressed optimism that some of his customers would bring their clothes for sewing at the end of the month, when their salaries must have been paid.

Titus Mutum, another tailor, also attributed the poor patronage to increase in the services rendered by tailors, which had forced customers to find alternatives by acquiring more of ready-made or fairly-used clothes.

“As the prices of everything has gone up, so we also have been forced to increase ours because the cost of materials and other adornments to beautify clothes has increased.

“So some people prefer to just buy ready made clothes or second-hand ones, which in some cases, are a bit cheaper than buying materials, then accessories and the sewing,’’ he said.

Mrs Chioma Emmanuel, a tailor at Kpaduma, Asokoro extension, attributed the poor patronage to epileptic power supply, which had affected contract agreement between tailors and customers.

“The issue of no light has also made some customers stop sewing clothes because their tailors might end up disappointing them or the sewing might be delayed.

“Even when we use generator, we have to increase the charges for obvious reasons but some customers would not understand,” she said.

He stressed the need for the government to address the issue of epileptic power supply to enable artisans and other low income earners survive the present hardship.’’