Stand-alone shops want business to remain open for whole week like malls

Owners of stand-alone shops in the local markets of Noida have requested the district administration to allow them to remain open for the entire week, instead of

Owners of stand-alone shops in the local markets of Noida have requested the district administration to allow them to remain open for the entire week, instead of alternate days as per the current odd-even plan. The shop owners sent a letter to the district administration on Saturday, requesting the same.

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Markets in the urban areas have been allowed to open shops under the current odd-even system, in which each shop can work for three days of the week while taking one day as a compulsory off. That day is used for sanitising the area. Malls, on the other hand, has been allowed to remain functional for the entire week. After months of remaining shut city malls opened on June 8.

Several shop owners feel that the odd-even system is not fair to them.“While a shop in the market can only open for three days in a week, a shop selling the same items in a mall can remain open for seven days. This isn’t fair to us. The footfall in the markets is already quite less. Some owners who live in Delhi or have employees coming from the national capital are even unable to open their establishments due to border restrictions. Why would a customer come to a market when they know that they have better chances of finding products in the malls,” said Sushil Kumar Jain, president, Sector 18 market association.

Many shop owners feel that the difference in the policy between markets and malls has led to a loss of revenue.

“There are hardly any customers in the market. Roadside vendors are not setting up shops and there are no crowds. Therefore maintaining social distancing is not an issue. If the malls can open for the entire week, why can’t the markets do the same? We have suffered so much losses during the lockdown that if things don’t change after June 30, the committee might decide to close down the market completely,” said Dr CB Jha, president, Atta market association.

According to local administrative officials, all decisions have been taken based on guidelines coming from the Central government and it is not possible to dilute them.

“Malls remained shut even long after the stand-alone markets were allowed to open on May 20. The odd-even plan is not a real possibility for malls. Rules might change depending on what orders we receive from the Central government,” said PK Singh, district labour commissioner.

Notably, the markets had initially been shut on Sunday, which was later changed to the previous system of having a week-day off. This was done to boost sales during the weekend when residents usually come out to shop. The off day is used for sanitising the area.