SHILLONG: Police Bazar & GS Road, the posh shopping place, known for being the most thronged place of the capital town, is today forlorn and struggling. Thanks to COVID and the concomitant restrictions that the administration has enforced.
Unlike its once busy avatar, Police Bazar now looks deserted with only a few shops open and not too many people frequenting them. The picture of hustle bustle associated with the place is a thing of the past. The problem is that people are not sure which shops are open on which day. Not all are privy to newspapers which regularly announce which shops are open on which days.
For no fault of theirs, the shop owners are at the receiving end as they have had no sales worth talking about past four and half months. Most of them speaking to this reporter on Tuesday had a common refrain: That Police Bazar has not found favour with the government while most other market places have been functioning almost like normal times.
The shop owners who do not want their names mentioned for obvious reasons said, “Why is Police Bazar the busiest commercial hub being singled out while other places like Laitumkhrah have been allowed to fully open up?”
When drawn her attention to this seemingly discriminatory approach, Deputy Commissioner, East Khasi Hills, Matsiewdor War Nongbri said,
“This matter is being flagged and will be taken up very soon because the government too is concerned. The matter was discussed in depth in the past and it was felt that the numbering process was required, however the same is being reviewed.”
The shop owners all agreed that utmost care must be taken and protocols observed, especially the crowding inside shops has to be controlled and they said they were willing to strictly follow these protocols but wondered how long they can open their shops just once or twice a week.
The worst sufferers are cloth merchants and dealers in readymade clothing. They say, in the pre-COVID days if they were getting 100 customers, now they get five. One of them, the owner of a popular jainsem, sari and shawl outlet said, “I am allowed to open three days a week but I look at the situation and open accordingly. If COVID cases go up I prefer to close my shop. I also have to be careful because the staff come from different areas of the town. Even if they don’t come from red zones it is hard to tell who is an asymptomatic carrier and who is not. All I know is that we are all in a bad shape and the government packages are not meant for us. In any case clothes are not a priority these days. People buy only what is essential.”
Branded shoe shops like Bata’s and Metro are doing a fair bit of business but they don’t get the clientele they used to. There is a sense that not all is well. One of the store owners told this correspondent, “Things are very bad. You have to see what’s happening in Bengaluru. 50,000 shops have downed shutters due to lack of business; about 10,000 office establishments are closed and about 300 hotels are up for sale. Actually COVID has killed business. I wonder how long we can pay our staff and the rentals for our shops.”
Shops selling household goods like refrigerators, ovens, washing machines are doing a fair bit of business but even they say the sales have gone down drastically. “We need that sense of normalcy to return otherwise fear of the virus will kill us and our businesses.”
According to the assessment of business circles in town, the economy is being strangulated by the dwindling flow of money in the market. Unless tourists come or the local people shed fears and go shopping again, the market cannot be buoyant.
The surmise is that the only people who are making money right now are government suppliers and those doing business with the government. And these are just a handful. The large majority of micro, small and medium businesses are all suffering. “Time will come when people will not have the purchasing power even if they need to buy essentials”, said a perturbed owner of another shop.
