New arrivals of sky sparkles which burst into colourful designs, creating light shows on the sky and assorted cracker boxes are all set to steal the show this Deepavali.
The assorted gift boxes which contain 34 items with more than 200 pieces of crackers is the new attraction at the Karpagam Co-operatives Super Market, run by the Department of Co-operatives in Vellore.
A salesman here said the maximum retail price of the box was `7,510 but the government has priced it at ` 1,854. “This could be given as a gift for the festival.” The salespersons at the super market have been directed to work at the separate stall in the venue, which was inaugurated by the Collector on October 19 and is expected to function till November 3.
“The sale of crackers last year was `78 lakh. The stock received for this year was `1.10 crore, which was also fixed as the target for the year. The sale till date has been `24 lakh and it would peak in the last two days,” said S R Venkatesan, Joint Registrar of Department of Co-operatives, Vellore.
“Many varieties of sky sparkles that burst in various colours have found their place in the Vellore market,” said Arvindh, a college student, who said gold, red and green colour sparklers existed till last year and sparkles in silver, purple, pink and yellow colours were new additions this this Deepavali. Raghuraman, owner of a stationery shop Radharakrishna Stores on the Thirumuruga Kirubanandha Variyar Salai, said the sparkles with fancy names such as Blue Stars, Platinum Rain, Jade Flowers, Grape Garden and Gold Drops make it easy for the public to choose them.
He said,“The the trend had totally changed with the arrival of the assorted boxes priced between `300 and `3,000 which include high decibel bombs and colour sparkle type crackers.”