The warmer winter this season has meant low footfall for the dealers in hosiery industry, who otherwise do good business during these three to four months, when the mercury keeps dipping in this part of North India with each passing day. Higher temperatures have hit them badly with manufacturers and sellers fearing major dent on their sales.
“The weather has adversely affected our business. As there hasn’t been biting cold this year, people have shunned from buying new winter clothes. This is one of the worst winter seasons witnessed by the hosiery industry,” said one shopkeeper, adding that the business was nearly 30-40 percent less than usual.
The hosiery shops in the famous markets, including Mai Hira Gate, Rainak Bazar, Sheikhan Bazar, apart from the big Malls, could be seen lying vacant and the shopkeepers have been left waiting for customers, who otherwise thronged these shops during winters.
The shopkeepers have been continuously keeping an eye on the weather forecast and have been hoping for rainfall or snowfall in the adjoining hills that might bring the mercury down and increase the footfall to their shops.
“We had already purchased all the inventories before setting up of the winters as we were of the view that this time the winters will remain for longer period and temperature, too, will be low. But in contrary, we haven’t seen much of cold weather this season and most of our winter clothes have been left unsold,” said another shopkeeper.
{{/usCountry}}“We had already purchased all the inventories before setting up of the winters as we were of the view that this time the winters will remain for longer period and temperature, too, will be low. But in contrary, we haven’t seen much of cold weather this season and most of our winter clothes have been left unsold,” said another shopkeeper.
{{/usCountry}}The district is witnessing a maximum temperature of 22 degree Celsius this January, which is double of that witnessed last year, which averaged at around 11 degree Celsius.
Sushil Arora, a supplier of hosiery clothes to the shopkeepers, said, “Payment and orders are disappointing as the stocks of the goods purchased in the beginning of the season have not exhausted due to low sales. So there is no scope of fresh orders and the collection of the payment, too, is not good.”
He added that if the weather continued to be the same, the industry might suffer a loss of 50 to 60 percent this year.
Meanwhile, some of the big shopkeepers and shop owners in the Malls were even planning to offer big discounts in case the weather remained the same.