Shopkeepers a happy lot as woollen mkts see rush of customers

Ludhiana: With sudden drop in the temperature, cash registers of shopkeepers selling retail and wholesale

winter garments

at the city’s old markets are ringing.

Markets like Mochpura Bazaar, Dal Bazaar, Gandhi Nagar, and other areas are full of customers coming to scout for Ludhiana-made stuff like jackets, pullovers, shawls etc.

Though some of the shopkeepers are facing difficulty to cater to the demands of customers as anticipating low sales they did not order adequate stock from factories which have now shut their winter production.

Speaking to TOI, Jaspal Sharma Tinku, a shopkeeper from Dal Bazar which is a wholesale market, said, “The weather has become colder from the past 10 days and our business has picked up. We are seeing good footfall of wholesale customers from the nearby cities. We are also getting a lot of calls from customers in other states to send them additional quantity of garments like pullovers and jackets. However, as the factories have shut production of winter garments, we are facing difficulty in sourcing these. Going by the slow pace of orders from our customers, we had bought limited quantity of garments from factories for the season. However, we are happy that going by the current market scenario, the entire quantity of our stock will be sold.”

Varun Saggar, a businessman having his shop in Gandhi Nagar market, said, “Till last week of November, almost every shopkeeper in our market anticipated huge losses as there was low turnout of customers. But ever since the change in the weather, both the retail and wholesale customers are coming in large numbers daily. Moreover, as we have limited stock of goods, we have stopped offering extra discount on garments which was being given till 15 days back.”

Sarjeevan Goyal, a shawl trader from Mochpura Bazaar, said, “With weather turning colder day-by-day, footfall of retail customers is increasing which is good. We are praying that the weather continues to remain like this at least for the next two to three weeks so that we are able to make good sales.”