Only Pain, No Gain
Small Traders’Woes After Lock down
It is what it is ,accept it and move on. The quote best suits to the present situation of covid19 pandemic. Don’t count coffers, but do business. This is what a trader has learnt.
People who have been in-lock for past four months , because of the contagious Corona disease, are now coming to terms with the reality: living with the pandemic. Governments call it unlocking. It has been over a month since shops and establishments reopened in Hyderabad. Traders, adhering to the covid19- restrictions, have restarted their businesses afresh .But, flows of revenue are not the same they used have before lock down. Have the demands of the customers changed? Are the traders not able to meet them? Kishan Sharma, who owns a building material shop in the city said,” People are afraid of constructing new buildings, but those who had started before the lock down was imposed, are now resuming the work. They are the bulk of our buyers now. They want the material for a throw away price. We are foregoing all our margins.”
Manju Sharma, who runs a small cement shop at Kattedan, had the similar story with a different dimension: “There are hardly five customers a day. Though we are doing everything to regain confidence among customers by ensuring them safety, sanitation, and social distancing, we are not getting our due. The accrued huge rents have made us Panic-stricken.”
“Business houses are not willing to go for new stock because of the hike in prices. There is dip in revenue to the extent of 10 percent, even we clear the old stock,” said Manoj Sharma , another cement trader in the city. So, for the traders in the city, chips have been down” ,since the ease of lockdown.
Jyothy Sharma, Student, AP College of Journalism
