SALALAH:At a time when there is a call from around the world to have least social and public interaction, launching promotions and advertising them on social media is not a good idea.
A section of people have raised this issue with the Observer and said this kind of advertisement would tempt people to go for shopping in hypermarkets exempted from closure list of business activities due to them coming under essential services category.
“I received series of advertisements from a hypermarket and when I compared the prices they were quite tempting as they were offering many food items at discounted rates compared to other outlets,” said Abdul Lateef a Salalah resident.
He said it might be a wrong decision on the part of the hypermarkets because the current time is not conducive to any such promotion and they should strictly refrain from any such activity at least for the same period the government agencies have announced restrictions.
“it is a good idea not to raise prices and be proactive in providing essential goods as per the norms set by the government agencies, but any kind of promotion and gathering of people in large numbers can prove a spoilsport in all the good regulations taken to break the chain od coronavirus,” Lateef said.
Similarly, another resident mentioned about some promotional leaflets that he saw tucked on many cars parked in front of a restaurant where people were coming to take food parcels.
“At a time when publication of newspapers and magazines have been stopped to avoid changing hands of those published materials and save people from any chance of getting infected, any distribution of promotional leaflets can be dangerous,” said Abraham who works as technician in an electronic shop.
Both the acts might be unintentional, but this is the time for everyone to understand the pros and cons before taking any small and big steps. It is time for the buyers also to understand that they should go for shopping only in case of extreme urgency.
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