Inflation pulls down Deepavali sales

This year’s Deepavali has not brought the cheer and joy that it would usually usher in. The festival of lights is rather dull and it is evident in the commercial area in the city, where the crowd is less and there is enough parking spaces.

The shops do not sport the Deepavali look. They look dreary, in the absence of the trademark Deepavali lighting and decorations. There are neither festoons nor advertisement boards. In a few shops, the number of salespersons outnumbers customers. Shops selling electronic goods, furniture, jewellery and other items which usually benefit from the Deepavali sales season, have less number of customers purchasing goods this year. Shop owners attribute the reason to inflation, which has impacted customers purchasing capacity. Families’ purchasing capacity has come down and the Deepavali budget has taken a cut.

A shopkeeper, who caters to lower middle class, customers who usually buy for Rs. 500 now settle for Rs. 350. His shop usually overflows with youngsters.

This time too it there are customers but not as much as the previous year’s Deepavali.

The reason is that his customers are usually textile industry workers who has taken a beating for a variety of reasons. High cotton prices, power cut-affected powerloom industry, where weavers have quit the trade as in Vellakoil, pollution-hit dyeing and bleaching trade have all played spoilsport in Deepavali 2008. Sweet selling is no longer sweet, says M. Mohan, a sweetmeat seller. He usually gets orders before Deepavali. This time, though, the orders have been hard to come by. ‘I am yet to produce sweets and savouries.’ It has also to do with the increase in cost of raw materials like ghee. ‘Prices have gone up by 30 per cent,’ he says. The same is true of crackers and fireworks too. The arrival of Deepavali, which usually comes with a kid in the neighbourhood firing a cracker at least 10 days or week in advance, has so far been muted. It has been hard to hear Deepavali.

If Deepavali comes, which will in a week’s time, will not be with the usual bang, courtesy inflation.