Shoppers keep away even 5 days after shops opened
NOIDA: The summer heat, and night and weekend curfews have kept customers away from shops and markets in Noida, even five days they opened.
Most shopkeepers pointed that their business would not pick up until the night curfew, which comes into force every day at 7pm, is lifted or their working hours extended. On Saturdays and Sundays, the markets are closed for sanitisation.
Sector 27 Atta Market
Shopkeepers at a prominent flea market reported that they barely have any customers.
Garment seller Akhilesh Jha said his earnings were just ₹2,500 in the five days.
“We are sitting idle in the shop all day. Customers start trickling in after 5pm but since the night curfew starts at 7pm, we have to shut at 6.30pm,” he said. “My daily operational cost is at least ₹2,500 that includes rent, electricity, water.”
Most customers who did come are those who had some essential work or others who
dropped by just to look around.
Jigisha Malik, a resident of Sector 29 who was at the market on Thursday said, “I was in the area to visit a bank and thought I would drop by to look around. I may buy something if it catches my fancy, but I did not come here exclusively for shopping,” she said.
Gijhore resident Yatin Sharma said before the pandemic, most shops used to open at 5pm.
“During summers there are barely any customers during the
day even before the pandemic. And on top of that, we also ahve night curfew as well as a curfew on weekends, which discourage customers,” he said.
Sector 44 resident Vimal Verma who runs a toy shop has not opened his shop. “I am already paying rent for a closed shop and if I open it, I will have to incur electricity and water bills too. Just like last time when lockdown was removed, I know this time too business will be slow the first two-three weeks.
So, to reduce overheads, I have decided to keep the shop shut until footfall increases,” he said.
CB Jha, president of Atta Market Traders Welfare Association said, “At least 40% of the shops have not reopened. Some have gone back to their home towns, while others don’t want to risk blowing away savings as there are hardly any sales.”
Sector 18 market
The situation is similar at the Sector 18 market that houses shops selling electrical equipment, appliances, jewellery and apparels, apart from offices and eateries.
“We were doing great in April as the wedding season was on. However, the sudden curfew hit us hard. Now, not only has the wedding season ended, there are no major festivals for next two months. This year’s major sales have gone down the drain and we are now only hopeful of sales during Diwali,” said VK Gupta, owner of a garment shop.
Jeweller SK Jain, also the president of the Sector 18 Market Association, hoped the monthend would be better.
“We are hoping that in the next few weeks, footfall will increase. Since cases are also going down, maybe more restrictions will be relaxed as well,” he said.
Not all are unlucky
On the other hand, it was heyday for those providing maintenance and repair services.
“On the first day of relaxations, we got over 60 customers looking to get their mobile phones repaired or purchase new ones. We had to ask most of them to return later,” said Laxmikant Sharma, who runs a retail mobile phone shop as well as a repair shop at Savitri Market in Sector 18.
Number of shoppers looking to purchase new air-conditioners and coolers is also high at the Sector 18 market.
“As soon as restrictions were lifted, shoppers rushed to buy electrical appliances for the summer as it had almost become an emergency with temperatures soaring. Not just retail but repair services of AC and other electrical equipment are also high these past five days,” said Anita Singh, general secretary of Sector 18 Sangharsh Samiti.