A Glittering Holiday Bazaar with a lot of Fanfare

Meseret Shiferaw, who is a self-employed handicraft maker, has a habit of visiting holiday bazaars at the exhibition centre regularly to enjoy the holiday spirit of the milling crowd.

“The energy, the loud crowd, the music is what makes me realise that the holiday is just around the corner,” he says.

This Christmas, Shakayna General Business plc, L’abyssine International Business Expo and Habesha Weekly Promotion plc have jointly organized “Christmas Bazaar 2014/15” at Addis Abeba Exhibition & Marketing Development Enterprise (AAEMDE) in Meskel Square. The bazaar, which opened on December 19, 2014, will remain open until January 6, 2015, with visitors having to pay 10Br entrance fee.

Same as Mesert, Yohannes Bekel is also another visitor who is also drawn by the crowed.

“I just arrived this morning from Dire Dewa. As I was passing by the exhibition centre this afternoon, I noticed people rushing in and out of the centre and, that is when I could not help but join in the crowd with excitement,” said Yohannes on December 30, 2014.

Even though the visitors find the crowd as an exciting flavour to the bazaar, the organizers have also tried to come up with new features to attract and entertain visitors. Various prizes, largest balloon decor, towering unique Christmas tree and over 100 musicians are included at the bazaar, stated Adonic Worku, managing director of Habesha Weekly. Around 13 million Br is spent up on the preparation of the bazaar, he added.

“We tried to come up with different new features and we have succeeded,” Hana Eticha, media coordinator for Habesha Weekly, pointing out the excited people who were taking pictures with the 12m long Christmas tree, made up of waste plastic bottles. Around six people have spent three days collecting the waste plastic bottles and two days building the Christmas tree, stated Yabisra Zeleke, the tree designer. Different lights and balls are used to decorate the tree, but beside the eccentric side of it, the main purpose of the creation is to create awareness about environmental conservation and preservation, he added. In order to keep our environment clean and preserved we need to have a better disposal of plastic bottles and recycling methods, and this is a message we would like to disseminate to the public, explained Yabisra.

There were 12,500 visitors on Tuesday, December 30, 2014, alone, according to Hanna. This number is expected to reach up to 30,000 on the weekends, she added. And up to 400 exhibitors have set up their tents to welcome the visitors, stated Adonic.

One of the exhibitors, Henok Solomon, general manger of Philli Leather Craft, stated that they have been exhibiting for four consecutive years at the centre. The company produces men’s shoes, leather jacket and purse at its shop located around Mexico. Philli sells its products to benefit from the promotional opportunity, Henok says. Though the rent has increased almost double from last year’s price, he is optimistic this Christmas will bring him a higher profit, noted Henok. This year he paid around 27,000 Br for his nine square meter tent, which was around 15,000Br last year.

“The high rental price is understandable and I am selling more than I set out to sell at this bazaar,” gushed Biniam Tewolde, salesperson at Makeda Afework Import and Export.

La Sante is also another company which claimed selling its skin and health care products at a lower price, says Alem Fistum, La Sante’s salesperson. La Sante has its manufacturing plant in Dukem, 37Km from Addis Abeba.

While manufactures promote their product by selling at a lower price, on the contrary retailers usually sell at higher price than they regular sell in order to amass the wide range of demand created at the exhibition, explained Henok. An 18-year old visitors, Edom Fasil, complained that while she regularly bought perfumes and jewelries, she always found the prices at the exhibition centre more expensive.

Shakayna General Business plc has won the bid to organise the Christmas bazaar with a record of 6.1 million Br. The 2013 and 2014 offers for the Christmas bazaars were 3.55 million Br and 3.8 million Br, respectively. There has been a dramatic change in auction bids for holiday events since 2011, with New Year, Christmas and Easter events up for grabs. The 2011 Easter offer was 1.8 million Br, while the Christmas offer was 1.5 million Br. In 2012 this increased to 1.9 million Br for the Easter event and 2.86 million Br for the Christmas event.

Shakayna was established in 2000 with a business ambition to take part in the country’s overall trade and investment activities. L’abyssine International Business Expo was established in France in 1998 with the objective of promoting Ethiopian culture, tourism and business. The company which undertook the promotional job of the bazaar is Habesha Weekly Promotion plc. The company is engaged in ICT, media and entertainment product and service provision.


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