People coming in droves to buy everything under the Sun in old notes.
BHOPAL: Twenty. That was the number of 15-litre cans of Soyabean Oil costing Rs 1200-apiece bought by a customer three days back from Priyadarshini Super Market across Rangmahal theatre in New Market. The gentleman hired a loading auto to cart away the stock.
While shopkeepers and traders are complaining of an unprecedented slump in business owing to the demonitisation-induced liquidity crunch, it is raining cash in Priyadarshini. The daily sales of the Supermarket have witnessed an almost six fold jump, even as other stores in the vicinity are waiting endlessly for the elusive customers. And the reason is not far to seek. Priyadarshini is accepting the old Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes in payment.
“We have been authorised by the government”, says Ajay Barha, manager of the store, which is run by the MP State Co-operatives Consumers Federation Ltd.
Priyadarshini is the first department store of Bhopal. It was inaugurated in 1988, when the innumerable Malls dotting the city now were years away and shopping only meant visiting your neighbourhood bania, a list in hand and cash in pocket.
In its initial years, the store, spread over a 5000 sq feet area, witnessed great business. Departmental Stores, where you could touch and feel the stuff before deciding to buy it, was a novelty for the city and consequently a big hit. Shopping at Priyadarshini was a status symbol and the sprawling store, with its rows upon rows of well-stocked shelves and Electronic cash register machines, was a big draw. Gradually, as competition grew and novelty wore off, the store lost out to competitors.
Since November 8, however, business is booming. Stuffs are flying off the shelves and the daily sales have jumped from Rs 15,000-Rs 20,000 per day to over Rs one lakh per day. The number of shoppers has also grown from 20-30 to above 150.
Those manning the counters say that they are seeing many new faces and the regular customers are spending much more than they normally did. Most of the families are buying things in much larger quantities than would suffice for their monthly needs. Food grains, edible oil, confectionaries, soaps and detergents, stationery items, plastic ware – everything is selling.
Till November 14, the store was accepting notes without ID proof. From that date, it has started demanding photo-copies of their IDs from the customer. The manager expressed his ignorance about the rationale behind the move. “We are bound by orders from above”, Barha said. As of now, the store will accept the demonitised currency till November 24, unless the deadline is extended.
But the staffers are happy – and so are the customers.
After all, as they say, forever is as long as it lasts.
