Recession, CII fair causing dip in festival sales, say shop owners

Dhanteras brought about mixed tidings for the shopkeepers with some items witnessing a higher sale than usual, while others are not finding many takers.

The shopkeepers in some sectors have rued that the sales this year have been less than those in the previous years due to recession. Some shopkeepers, particularly those selling jewellery, witnessed high sales.

On Dhanteras, people buy jewellery or metal in any form including utensils. Rush was witnessed in most of the markets on Sunday resulting in chaos at many places, especially in markets like Sector 22, 18, 19, 34 and 35. With the lack of parking spaces, vehicles were parked along the roads leading to the markets. Traffic jams were witnessed at many places and vehicles crawled slowly taking hours for people to reach from one destination to the other.

Arun Talwar of Jewellers Talwarson, Sector 17 said, "The sales of gold have not receded and today the sales were better than the past one week. People expect the prices of gold to increase further. This is why the sales are still high. The trend of buying gold coins from banks is picking up among people. Those who want jewellery come to the shops, those buying gold for investment are purchasing gold coins."

The shops selling utensils also witnessed people thronging to make purchases. Dhanteras is considered auspicious for the purchase of such items.

However, shopkeepers in some markets claim that the festive season has witnessed a dip in sales as compared to the previous years.

Blaming this dip in sales on the worldwide recession, the shopkeepers claim that while people are thronging markets, the purchases being made are less.

Arun Gupta, a shopkeeper in Sector 22 states that the CII exhibition that is held a few days before Diwali creates problems for the shopkeepers in this sector.

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