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Small traders fear threat from malls

Staff Reporter

BERHAMPUR: Small traders of this major trading center of south Orissa are panicked of losing their business due to proposed establishment of big shopping malls in the city in near future.

According to source Reliance Fresh, Bazar Kolkata, Big Bazar, Vishal Mega Mart, Suviksha chains have already shown interest in having their shopping malls in the city. According to traders of the city some of these companies have already acquired land for the purpose and some others are searching for prime land at the heart of the city.

According to sources Bazar Kolkata and Vishal mega Mart may be opening up their shopping malls within a few months. The local traders are worried about these recent developments as they have come across the fate of small traders in other cities of the country due to opening of large shopping malls by big business houses.

Mr Md. Idris, the vice president of the urban bank road merchants association said if these malls are opened then it would mean drastic

loss of business for the small traders, who might lose their livelihood. K.Goutam, who owns a shop of household appliances said once these malls are opened people, would get attracted towards the discounts that these big business houses could provide to build up their customer strength and shops like his would lose customers.

The small retailers of the city have already started losing customers as the wholesalers have also started opening up retail counters with extra discount to customers. The effect of opening of large showrooms has already shown its impact in the gold ornament market of the city. Berhampur is being considered one of largest market of gold in the state. It has more than 100 shops of goldsmiths. According to the president of the Gold jewellers association of the city, P.Satyanarayana Senapati the small units of gold ornaments have already lost 20 to 30 per cent of their profit after opening of big ornament showrooms.

But most of the small vegetable traders of the city are still unaware of the danger on their livelihood due to proposed opening of Reliance

Fresh in the city. K.Chintamma who sells vegetables, grown in her fields at Karapalli, at Kamapalli market in the city was astonished when she was told vegetables would now be sold in air conditioned shopping malls. With a despairing look, she said, "Then who would come to me to buy vegetables by traversing through the dirty market".

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