Raghbir Singh Brar
Faridkot
The much lower yield of the paddy crop outgoing season, mass migration of the youth to the foreign countries and online sale by business giants cast a shadow on the local ,particularly small business.
“Earlier, we had customers visiting our shops from morning to the evening, but now its irregular.On some days, there a lot of rush of the customers and on others, there is not at all.Sometimes, we don’t have any time to have food, but some days,someone may wonder how would he arrange for his food as there is no customer,”said a shopkeeper from Kotkapura to own of the district.
“As I am in the business of cosmetics, it is more impacted.The youth,our main source of income has left for other countries and middle aged or elders are back here.They have nothing to buy from us,” he claimed.
“The online sale by the big giants has also hit the local shopkeepers hard.There are truckloads of the things ordered by the people daily.Earlier, the transactions were made by cash and p;eople used to visit the local shops to buy the things they need.But now, the people,particularly youth continue to suft such websites and order things online.So instead of the local market,the money is going to the big tycoons.The people don’t check the real price of the things in the local market and online, but they get attracted towards online sales,” said Arwinder Singh, who runs a chemist shop as a wholesale dealer.
Now even some sites also claim to cut the profit of the middlemen and attract the patients to buy cheap medicines online.
“The youth had been migration to the other countries for many years till two years back.But as they are not getting PR there, they are not coming back to spend here and get married here back.They are waiting for getting permanent residency there.So our sales have also dropped drastically,” claimed a salesman working at very big cloth store in the district.
Even if some NRIs visit India or Punjab,or the richj people staying here,prefer to shop in big cities and Malls in Bathinda,Ludhiana and Chandigarh.
The farmers have suffered a loss ranging between Rs 10000 to 25000 per acre from Paddy and Basamti in the outgoing paddy season.
If small and medium farmers earn handsome profit,they would have to buy more things than they really need,but now they hardly cater to their needs and most of the people avoid spending by going to the local market.
Only hospitals and schools and related businesses may not get impacted by the slump in the market, but most other businesses are down.