Hyderabad: Sundays are usually meant for relaxation and good food, but many households refrained from buying mutton, prawns etc., holding back their precious small notes for the coming days.
With ATMs being closed in many areas and long queues forming at banks, people are wary of using whatever little money they have with them.
Mr Abbas Ali, a mutton and chicken shop owner, said, “Sunday is usually a day of brisk business, but very few customers turned up today. The number of those who buy meat or chicken worth Rs 100 has drastically reduced. Even highend customers were buying Rs 2,000-worth products to stock in their deep freezers.” But such customers were very few on Sunday.
Due to the lowering sales, the traders are ordering less stock. Mr Johnson David, a wholesale fish merchant, said, “I usually get seven boxes of different types of deep frozen fish, prawns and crabs on Sunday. But for today I had cancelled the stocks as there were hardly any takers. Even hotels are not picking up their usual stock as customer walk-ins have dwindled.”
Mr Ramesh Gupta, a kirana store owner said, “I am taking deposits of Rs 500 from customers in the neighbourhood and am running accounts for them so that they can take things on credit. This way, at least they can have pulses, rice, wheat etc. till this crisis passes. All of us kirana shop owners have unanimously decided to do this till there is proper cash flow in the market.”
