The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : Eateries find the going very tough

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Sunday, Jul 13, 2008
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

Eateries find the going very tough

— Photo: M. Moorthy

Win-win point: Customers taking food at a roadside eatery in Tiruchi.

With the prices of essential commodities registering a skyrocketing trend, majority of managers of fast-food eateries in different parts of the city seem to bear the brunt quietly, partly due to their goal of keeping the customers intact and mainly due to stiff competition prevailing among themselves.

Unlike the well-established restaurants, these roadside make-shift eateries cater mainly to the culinary needs of the people belonging to the lower income strata. The inflation trend has come as a blessing in disguise to these short-duration stalls functioning mainly for a few hours in the late evening hours, with even middle income group people now surging towards them to tide over the crippling crisis on the price front. With prices in the popular hotels becoming unaffordable, they have to depend on such eateries.

These eateries, despite the spiralling prices of all essential commodities and the gasoline on one side and the increase in the labour wages on the other, are fighting with their back to the wall to sustain their business. Being in the trade for decades, they find it too hard to switch over to any alternative and prospective vocation. Nonetheless, none of them dares to introduce any increase in the prices of dishes, lest it should weaken the customer base of their trade.

With the symptoms of prices registering any downward revision bleak, the owners have their fingers crossed. With the sole aim of adhering to customer-friendly attitude, many of them have sacrificed their profit margin altogether. “For the past several months it has been an acid test for us and we have been experiencing a tight rope walk. We do not know when the situation will improve. But it is quite doubtful how far we will be able to prolong our tactics for the sake of customers”, laments a cross section of the owners of the eateries.

Toiling hard almost throughout the day for preparing the culinary ingredients for the dishes, the proprietors are forced to reduce their profit margin, a direct and adverse impact of the spiralling prices. Some of them have to meet the expenses, for the sake of running the eateries, by taking loans. A large-sized ‘chapathi’ with delicious side-dishes costs just Rs.4 against Rs.15 – Rs.20 in popular restaurants; an ‘idli’ Rs.1.50 paise (Rs.3); a set of parotta Rs.3 (Rs.15 – Rs.20). This price list facilitates affordability for the lower and middle income group to get satisfied with sumptuous supper. K. Parvathi (43), one of the managers of an eatery at Goldenrock, who has been in the trade for the past two decades, complains that never before she had witnessed an overall hike in each and every commodity, starting from plantain leaves to carry bags. She does not compromise in quality to retain her customers in her fold. While she invests Rs.1,500 daily and prepares chapathi and other eatables, her son K. Senthilkumar serves the dishes. The only solace for her is that they are rid of any labour wages. “We cut down the profit through our labour”, she says pointing out that her daily profit has now been reduced to half her original margin a few months ago.

A couple of customers T. Anbalagan and P. Mohan point to the low-cost menu at the eateries which fits their purse. Quality wise too, they are more satisfied at the eateries than at the popular hotels, they claim. They are part of customers who have been regularly visiting the eateries at least for the past one decade. The unforeseen rise in expenses is eating into their savings. Thank God, the eateries have not increased the prices of eatables and it is a great consolation for people like us, says Vigneshwaran, a labour worker.

I. Asirvatham (57) another manager for the past two decades, points out that stiff competition prevailing among the owners prevents any upward revision in the tariff. “Prices of all commodities have increased. Even the prices of old news papers and carry bags used for packing the food items have increased”, lament Kasim running an eatery at Senthaneerpuram junction and Isac running a stall at Mudaliar Chathiram. These eateries have now introduced economy in other possible measures. For instance, they now use bi-cycle as a means of transport for bringing their vegetables and other commodities, instead of their previous mode of two-wheelers, auto-rickshaws.

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