BENGALURU: “I used to start my day at my shop at 8 am and would end by 8.30 pm. The shop was always filled with buyers and many times I used to miss lunch to attend to customers. But the busy life ended exactly last month on the same date,” said Kishore, a mobile phone shop keeper in Burma Bazaar.
It is not just Kishore but hundreds of shopkeepers in grey market areas such as National Market, Burma Bazaar, Bangkok Bazaar and many others located in the heart of the city who are affected by the Union government’s demonetisation.
These grey markets with many wholesale dealers - from electronic gadgets to sweets to clothing - used to be filled for at least nine hours a day. The retail shopkeepers in the city were their prime customers.
But from the day after demonetisation, these markets have become deserted. Now, shopkeepers keep the shops open only for a few hours. Hoping things would change sometime soon, some shopkeepers have shut the shops and have gone on trips with their family.
Kishore said, “Even after 30 days, there is no change in business. We expected the situation would change after 10-20 days as people would get money. But it has not happened. I feel the union government was not well prepared for this situation.”
Manikanta, a garment shopkeeper said, “My minimum daily turnover would be `8,000-9,000. But at times, I have to sit for 12 hours to get a business of `1,000.”
Harish, a wholesale sweets seller who also sells mobile currency said, “My business has come down by 70 per cent. We don’t get any orders as there is no money with buyers. In some cases, people come up with `2000 notes to buy `300-500 worth of materials but I send back them as we don’t have change.
Mobile recharge is rarely done now. Some people pay using Paytm. We can use it to pay electricity and water bills but it doesn’t help us to a larger extent.” Nixon, a mobile and laptop seller said, “There is no doubt business has dropped. But when it comes to sales of mobile phones, we are partially doing better. But there is a major decrease in laptop sales.
We are just hoping that things would change in a few days.” Ronak, a mobile phone shop keeper said, “My native is Gujarat, brought up in Kolkata and I am now doing business in Bengaluru. Of all the cities that I have lived in, I feel the cosmopolitan crowd in Bengaluru doesn’t mind spending money. After demonetisation, I have not seen such people.”