Note ban puts damper on Christmas sales
Note ban puts damper on Christmas sales
With the twinkle of Christmas lights bouncing off shop windows and
vibrant décor lined up neatly on shelves, some of the stores in Panaji
market have transformed into magical bazaars filled with Christmas trees, decorations and other attractions.
However,
unlike their usual cheerful countenances on other years, shoppers and
shopkeepers wore long faces owing to the impact of demonetization.
Keeping
in mind the ongoing financial situation in the country, a Panaji décor
store runner, Manisha Desai chose to scale down this time. “We knew we
would feel the heat of demonetization and therefore purchased a small
stock of decorations to sell. Despite this precaution, business has been
very slow,” she said.
Similarly, Girish Pinghe who sells statues
and readymade cribs in Panaji lamented, “We had stocked up on change
thinking people will bombard us with Rs 2,000 notes. Ironically, people
are not turning up at all.”
Ganesh Phadte, another Panaji-based seller of Christmas decorations said, “We are struggling to sell even most affordable decorative items. Our sales have dropped by 35% this year,”
Lashing
out at the Modi government’s autocratic move, Captain Brany, owner of
Margao-based Choice Shopping said, “It is a big scam favouring only Modi
and top class BJP supporters. Nobody is realizing the outcome of demonetization on common men and the poor. Customers have no money to buy what they want. We have
not conducted even 50% of business this year due to demonetization. On
other years, people have no space to move around in the shop, but today
we have no customers at all.”
Another vendor from Margao said,
“Demonetization has caused a lot of problems in our business. It has
been a complete mess, sales have gone down drastically.”
Chinese
products, however, are flying off the shelves unlike Diwali when people
had boycotted them, many store owners said. “Most Diwali products are
made in India. But when it comes to Christmas decorations, the best ones
are from China. People don’t really have a choice,” said a salesperson
at Santosh Polypack stores.
Krishna Gaonkar who has set up a
temporary stall in Panaji market exclusively for lights said, “Fairy
lights, rice lights and streamer lights are not widely manufactured in
India. People specifically want these for Christmas and China is the
only place we can source it from. Also, people’s contempt against
Chinese products has slowly died down.”
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