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Sunday shopping comes of age

Customers enthusiastically welcome shopping on Sundays, says Rema Sundar

STOCKING UP Most of the department stores are packed on Sundays when most families do their shopping for the week Photo: C. Ratheesh kumar

Once upon a time, Sunday was a holiday that brought life to a standstill in the city. Markets remained closed and so did most banks and other institutions. The streets were empty and many families either stayed glued to the TV or stayed at home.

Cinemas and a few other places were the only places that were `open' on a Sunday. Sunday shopping, which is taken for granted in other parts of the country, was something just not there in the city.

However, the times they are a changing... and now some big retailers in the city open shop on a Sunday.

Shopping hurdles

With Technopark, several global companies have set up shop here, thereby attracting lots of professionals from other States. And the shops that were closed on Sunday were a major drawback for these people who worked 24x7. Says Gayathri Ravi, an employee in an IT company, "When I moved to the city from Pune, it was difficult to finish all my shopping during the weekdays as most of the commercial establishments had a holiday on Sunday."

Concurring with her is Nalini G.V., a consultant with a telecom company, who belongs to Hyderabad, "We often work late hours and on Saturdays as well. This leaves us only a Sunday to make our purchases and shops that remain open here on a Sunday are woefully inadequate."

Adds Gayathri, "As Technopark is far away from the city where the major shopping centres are located, it becomes very difficult for us to get any shopping done on any other day except Sunday."

Recounting her experience, Sunitha Gopinath who works in VSSC and is a hosteller says, "I wanted to buy footwear. As weekdays are hectic, I hoped to do some shopping on a Sunday. But I had to postpone my purchase for there are no shops open on a Sunday in my locality."

Nalini chips in, "Even when we managed to locate the few shops that are open on a Sunday, I have found that shopping on a Sunday is made more expensive here by the higher fare for travelling by an auto."

Says V. Ramaswamy Sharma, bank manager, Central Bank of India, who was in Nagpur for several years, "I felt the difference when I moved to the city in 2002. Most of the shops in Nagpur were open on Sundays, making it convenient to go out shopping with your family," says Ramaswamy, who commutes nearly 35 km to work daily. "For a person like me, buying things for the family is very difficult on a working day."

He suggests that adopting a system of rotation could be beneficial to all working people.

Elaborating he says, "If Chalai market remains closed on Sundays, the Palayam market can be kept open on that day and so on."

Open to opening

However, the managers of the commercial establishments have different views.

Says Raju Menon, regional manager of `Spencer's Daily,' "From the feedback that we have got from our customers, they have liked our outlets working on Sundays. We were the first ones to start working on a Sunday after getting an exemption from the Government."

Arjunan, managing partner, `Parthas' differs. He says, "Opening a shop on a Sunday will be profitable only if we are able to generate traffic. This is possible in a place where there is a significant floating population."

Parthas remains open on Sundays only during the festival season and not on all Sundays. `Raymonds' on M.G. Road, which started working from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. on Sundays since November last, has found the customers' response to be positive.

Says Deepak Kataria, general manager, "We have been attracting families and our feedback tells us that people are generally happy with the new arrangement."

Shyju, staff, SportsWagon, which deals in sports merchandise, especially tennis and badminton, also shares his opinion.

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