BANGALORE: The bustling Avenue Road located in the heart of the city was once known as the common man's mall. With hundreds of shops selling books, notebooks, stationery, bags and other items, the lanes used to be packed with parents and students this time of the year.
In the recent past, however, with schools making it mandatory for students to purchase the required books and other materials from them, the retailers in the area seem to have suffered big losses.
City Express took a walk down the lane to speak to shopkeepers and buyers.
Gangadhar, owner of Chandrakala Book Center, said, "Three years ago, this time of the year, I wouldn't have had the time to talk to you. The business used to be that fast. Today, everybody buys books, notebooks and even stationery from their respective schools."
The fate of bag stores seems to be similar. Zakir Hussain, who runs Expo World Luggage Center, said, "Even though the sale of school bags hasn't been up to the mark, people have been coming to buy lunch bags, as many schools don't sell those. For every 10 school bags, we sell 20 lunch bags."
The bigger brands are affected by this trend as well. Shivalingu, store manager at the Bata showroom on Avenue Road, said the store has barely managed to maintain the sales percentage of the previous years in terms of school footwear. On the other hand, the sale of other shoe and chappal varieties has been witnessing a steady increase.
Venkatesh of Nanda Book Store that sells college textbooks said it's the online bookstores that need to be feared. "Since colleges don't sell books, our main competition is from websites that sell textbooks with big discounts. Due to one reason or other, business at every shop here has suffered this season," he said.
"Schools, even the smaller ones, buy books and stationery from Sultanpet, directly from the manufacturers, and sell them to the students. That is where wholesalers like us get our stocks. Now, parents have no reason to come to us. What can
we do?" asked a crestfallen Kumar, the owner of Kumar & Co.
As schools sell a limited supply of stationery and notebooks in the beginning of the academic year, chances are that the students would come back as and when they run out of supplies.
Geetha, mother of five-year-old Jonathan, was seen purchasing pencils and a pencil box at Reliance Stationery World. "I bought the stuff provided at the school for `2,500. But they have given only one box of pencils, which I think my son would use up soon. The school gives a lot of projects for the kids to work on, and last year, I ended up spending `5,000 for the additional stationery," she said.