Lean Christmas for small business owners
Demonetisation has selectively affected Christmas celebrations in the national capital. While small business owners have been vastly affected, with consumers being careful on what to spend their limited cash, Christmas Eve parties and brunches have not witnessed any decrease in their bookings.
Arvind Batra, co-founder, EventsHigh, a Bangalore based start-up that profiles various events happening in metropolitan cities across India, said, “Delhi has been on the forefront of Christmas celebrations. Apart from Christmas-Eve parties, organisers have started organising special Christmas workshops for wine tasting, baking sessions, Christmas brunch etc. A lot of these sessions witness 100% footfall. So these events have hardly been affected by demonetisation. Christmas business is good.”
Akash, a businessman who has been selling Christmas decoration items for five consecutive years at Dilli Haat said, “The sales are really bad this year. Dili Haat attracts a lot of customers for its winter carnival. But I am disappointed this year. There is still so much stock lying around and Christmas is only a day away. I will not be able to sell all of it. It’s a slow Christmas for me this year.”
Arpit Goel, a business owner in Select City Walk who had put out special items on sale for Christmas said, “I am not accepting digital payments because Paytm has not proved reliable and there have been several transaction complaints. Sales have gone down. And I am forced to sell my products at a lower price.”
Steven Fischer, a PhD student, while shopping at a south Delhi Christmas market said, “I want to buy lots of Christmas decoration items but I have limited cash and not all small vendors take digital payment. So I am buying only those things that I really need. ”
Suneeta Wadhwa, who specialises in Christmas chocolates was satisfied with her sales: “I am not suffering any losses. Like every year I made special chocolates to sell on Christmas and people are loving these.” Nepal’s ambassador to India, Deep Kumar Upadhyaya in an exclusive and candid conversation talks of the ups and downs of the Indo-Nepal relations, Nepal’s relations with China and much more. Excerpts. Q: India’s demonetisation is believed to have hit the already slowing Nepal’s economy. Nepal’s Rastra Bank (the Central Bank of Nepal) has said that they are not ready to accept the new currency notes issued by India because this has not been formally communicated to them. So, have you shared your concerns with India and what was India’s response? A: The demonetised currency was also a legal tender in Nepal and almost all household in Nepal had some or the other amount of the demonetised Indian currency because of their personal relations with India. But Nepal also has some remote areas, which have not been able to exchange their notes yet, and people there are worried about their currency and I get calls every day