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Liquor vends, book stores rake in big, others await customers as lockdown restrictions ease in Chandigarh
More emphasis was on stores selling essentials, while those selling non-essential items were mostly ignored
With the lifting of the curfew, the hustle and bustle returned to Chandigarh markets as non essential shops with even numbers inside the sectors were allowed to open. However, traders said they received a lukewarm response while long queues were witnessed outside liquor vends and bookstores in the city.
President of Chandigarh Beopar Mandal, Anil Vohra, who runs a shop in Sector 44, said, “Many people had come only to roam around in the markets or to find open liquor shops. Various videos were shared of long queues outside liquor shops but other traders didn’t see a sharp rise in customers.”
President of the Market Welfare Association of Sector 11, Diwankar Sahoonja, said, “Grocery shops that had been open during the curfew as well recorded around a 30% increase in sales, but the liquor vends drew the most crowds. Many people also came from other sectors to the chemist shops in Sector 11 so there was a lot of rush in the market due to this.”
More emphasis was on stores selling essentials, while those selling non-essential items were mostly ignored. Sudhir Jain, general secretary of the wholesale cloth merchant association of Chandigarh, said that sales barely reached 10% of their normal daily sales, but it felt nice running their shop again. President of the crockery association of the city, Ram Bilas Aggarwal, said although some crockery shops were opened in the city, almost no sales were recorded. “Until movement from Punjab and Haryana is not allowed, sales will not pick up,” he said.
While a long queue was seen in front of the liquor vend in Sector 9, other shops didn’t get as many customers. Rustam Singh, who hails from New Chandigarh, said he had come to Sector 9 to buy groceries, but seeing the liquor vend open he had decided to make a stop for alcohol first.
Many parents were also lined outside bookstores outside Manchanda Stores in Sector 19. Harjit Singh whose ward studies at St Anne’s in Sector 32 said they were getting books in advance even though the school hadn’t asked them to purchase them yet. Another parent said that a printer is needed for online classes, and those who couldn’t afford one had to queue up for books.
TRANSIT TROUBLE FOR SHOPKEEPERS FROM PANCHKULA, MOHALI
Many shopkeepers who were to come from Mohali and Panchkula also didn’t go to their shops on the first day just to let things smooth over first. Samrat Arora, an optician in Sector 22 who stays in Panchkula, said he had not gone to his shop fearing the confusion at the boundary of Panchkula and Chandigarh. “We were assured that we would face no difficulty, however it took commuters over an hour to pass because of police deployment and checking. Some shopkeepers were also not allowed to enter back into Panchkula,” he said.
Chairman of Chandigarh Beopar Mandal, Charanjiv Singh, said he had received many calls from people facing similar problems and he would apprise the deputy commissioner of the matter to figure out a solution for the shopkeepers.
