Festive season fails to bring cheer to traders

Sukhmeet Bhasin

Tribune News Service

Bathinda, October 15

The local business houses and sellers are missing the feel-good factor ahead of the festive season owing to the low customer turnout. They say it is due to rising competition, heavy discounts, and zero per cent EMI offered by the e-commerce portals, which have hit the business in several sector.

Traders whose shops are situated in local Dhobi Bazaar, on the Amrik Singh Road and on the Mall Road said rising competition, economic slowdown and decreasing paying capacity of people have affected their sales.

Gursharan Singh, president of the Dhobi Bazaar Traders Association, said, “Besides slowdown in the economy, there is already liquidity scare in the market. Deep discounts and no-cost EMIs offered by e-commerce companies have impacted the sales by up to 40 per cent so far.”

He said this year, festive season was towards the end of the month and also 10 to 15 days’ prior when compared to the last few years due to which there was a low turnout of customers.

Shikhar Goyal, a city-based trader, said “Although the markets are illuminated with fancy lights and multiple stalls are set up to cater to the demands of people in view of the festive season, yet one can’t see many people flocking to the markets.”

He said every year shopkeepers waited for the festival season in hopes of increased sale. We sincerely hope that the market would improve in the coming days. Otherwise, it would be very difficult for businessmen to sustain in the present scenario.

Expressing similar sentiments, city-based jeweller Kartar Singh Jaura, who is also the president of Beopar Mandal, said, “All shopkeepers are worried as there is witnessing a major slump in their businesses. Buyers are not spending money. In fact, they do not have the money to spend. Even the prices of gold and silver are 20 per cent high as compared to the last year, which is also one of the reasons behind slump in the sale of ornaments.”