NEW DELHI: While relaxations have come as a relief to some traders in the national capital, many of them are still struggling as only few customers are buying non-essential items.“There is fear among the people of visiting any markets and this has hit our sales, reducing them to 5% to 10% of their usual numbers. Opening our shops is costing us more than sitting at home with downed shutters. The Delhi government has given the orders to open markets but the people do not feel safe enough to visit markets so we are incurring losses,” said Atul Bhargava, president, New Delhi Traders Association.
In order to get the financial health of the city back on track, the AAP government introduced relaxations in the lockdown, allowing shops to open on an odd-even basis.However, even major markets like Connaught Place, which is much more spacious and can easily implement social distancing, remains dull during the permitted hours of functioning. The traders now want Delhi government to take up confidence-building measures amongst the people so that they visit markets more often.
Meanwhile, as per the government’s orders, the shopkeepers are taking steps like using thermal scanner gun, daily sanitisation and ensuring use of face masks.Meanwhile, customers who are buying clothes and footwear have been asked to not try them on before buying. “As a precautionary measure we have stopped customers from trying out clothes in shops. It was a collective decision. We accept, that it is wrong to not allow the buyer of the product to not try it out but this is the need of the hour,” said a shopkeeper in Connaught Place.Many small shopkeepers who are already reeling under low manpower said that may have to let go more staff if the sales continue to be low for another week.