During this time of the year, the weather is hot during the day and cold, vey cold at night. Thus, a lot of people are seen in jackets, suits and sweaters during evenings. Obviously, sales must be good for anyone in boutique business. In an interview with Joe of Jeps Collection, a boutique here in Tamale, people do buy winter clothes but they buy them from the second-hand cloth dealers, otherwise known as bend-down boutiques. Ironically, almost all the boutiques visited had no winter clothes in stock.

Meanwhile, according to Aminatu, the traditional boutiques tend to be expensive so she buys from the bend-down boutiques. In her opinion, that’s why the traditional boutiques no more stock their shops winter clothes. Meanwhile, in an interview with one owner of a bend-down boutique, there is low demand for winter clothes because the “economy is hard”. Also, people are making do with items they bought from the previous years.

One of the last projects commissioned by President John Adjekum Kuffour before leaving office in 2008 was the Tamale Water Project executed by Bi-Water. This project took two years to complete. Thanks to him, most parts of Tamale now have safe, portable drinking water. One good thing to happen to us as a result of this is the proliferation of local sachet water producing companies. This has greatly reduced the influx of sachet water from Accra and Kumasi. For business men and women who sell water in sachets, sales are normal. However, for people like Abdulai, whose main job for some years now has been to sell water in water tanks, he’s completely out of business. This can best be explained in the words of Madam Victoria of Visacs Supermarket, “Now, water is flowing everywhere”.

As expected, those in the cosmetic business are enjoying an increase in sales as there is a demand for their products. Interestingly, some men refuse to use lip balm or lip gloss to protect their lips. Instead, they prefer to lick them. According to one of them, it makes them feel and look girlish or gay. Meanwhile, for small shops located in places where competition is high, like Madam Janet in the Tamale Central Market, they experience low sales. Also, Due to the heat, products that contain hydroquine do go bad before their expiry period is attained. Due to this loss, there is no money to go in for Vaseline and other products which are in high demand.
Many people dislike the cold, and therefore the harmattan. But for the business people, it is a good thing.