KUCHING: It feels incomplete to even wear Baju Melayu during festive occasions such as Hari Raya Aidilfitri without wearing a songkok.
This is because, aside from tanjak, songok is one of the most important headpieces to complement the traditional Malay male attire such as Baju Melayu.
At India Street here, the songkok is available in various shapes and sizes, with songkok baldu becoming one of the favourites among the customers.
Recently, New Sarawak Tribune spoke with some of the songkok sellers on their challenges in selling songkok, whether they have any special promotions in conjunction with the upcoming Hari Raya celebrations.
Bashayirullah Noorul Ameen, 20 years old, has been selling songkok with his family since 2014.
Ever since then, he and his family have been selling songkok lipat, which is the one that can be folded and the songkok baldu.
“Songkok baldu is even more expensive compared to other regular songkok. This is because the material is much thicker and nicer.
“We sell the songkok baldu at RM88 depending on the size of it. The larger the size, the expensive it can be,” he said.
He added that over the past few years, however, the demand for the songkok has been very low.
“It is because there has been an increase in the usage of tanjak which is a more traditional Malay headpiece than songkok.
“The other reasons are that some people decided not to buy because the songkok they have is still in a very great condition.
“For instance, the lifespan of songkok baldu can go up to five years, and if you can maintain it, it can withstand more than that,” he added.
Bashayirullah then stated that his family usually imports the songkok all the way from Peninsular Malaysia, noting that in Sarawak, there are not many factories specialising in producing songkok.
“Most of them come from within our country. However, there is this one brand called “Baitullah”, which is the songkok lipat. That one comes from Indonesia,” he added.
He also believes that the demand for songkok will increase just in time for Hari Raya celebrations.
“I believe that people have received their payment by then, so of course they will come along and buy the songkok,” he added.
He explained that usually during the third week of Ramadan, a special promotion will be held.
“But for the promotion for the songkok, we only offer the RM3 discount for each songkok due to the profit margin, we cannot have the discount way more than that,” he added.
Nazimudin Mohd Yusop, 74 years old, who has been selling songkok since 1978 said that his customers would only buy the songkok if the songkok could not withstand any longer.
“They would buy a new one for themselves, and if they can afford more, they would buy it for their children,” he said.
Nazimudin added that he sells his songkok, ranging from RM20 all the way to RM150 per piece.
“For RM150, that would be the songkok baldu, and it is the highest quality type of songkok baldu.
“For the making of the songkok, we usually hired people that specialise in songkok making to make it. And then we shall sell it.
“However, oftentimes, I would just import it from other places like Peninsular Malaysia,” he added.
As for the promotion, he said that for those who are buying the songkok in bulk, gifts will be given to the customers.
“Gifts such as perfume will be given to the customers, as the price for the songkok could not be decreased, so those that buy the songkok in bulk, gifts will be given to them,” he added.
He then stated that sometimes, some songkok sellers would buy a lot of songkok from other sellers and then sell it for their own profit.
“However, if it is not selling very well, then they would return it back to me for instance, they would only get RM2 or RM3 profit margin.
“It also depend on the customers as well, if they are happy with the quality of the songkok, then they would come back and buy some more,” he added.
