Several shops, including those of hardware, stationery, apparels, and book stores, reopened here in Manipur's capital on the first day of the third phase of lockdown with humble plastic ropes tied across entrances at many places serving as reminders of social distancing norms.
With the state being in the green zone, many shopkeepers here are just happy to reopen after nearly two months of downing shutters, although several of them expressed concerns over supplies of stock in the near term and changed consumer behaviour in a world upended by the coronavirus pandemic in the long term.
As for consumers, stepping out after a long period of confinement during the health crisis carries a mixed feeling -- of being able to buy items on shopping list for a while but unable to purchase due to the lockdown and the fear of COVID-19 hanging in the air.
"We've not had too many customers so far. It's the first day of opening the shop since we shut it from March 22. Today has been more or less about cleaning and dusting the shop," Gurinder Singh owner of Blue Bell, one of the oldest apparel stores in the city, told PTI.
When asked how confident is he of customers coming back in large number after the health crisis blows over, Singh said,"Hopefully in the days to come people will start coming but then this is a problem not just in Manipur but the world over where it has changed so many things. Let's see what future holds."
A couple of closed shops away, is Lady Queen which specialises in women's bags and shoes. Its owner Kh Bakim, till around noon has been waiting for the first customer to come after reopening the shop in the morning.
"I am aware that customers won't come on the first day since we are not selling essential items. I have come more to do a check on the shop after a long time," he said, in the hope that in the next few days a sense of normalcy could prevail.
Few steps ahead at the opposite end of the street at Thangal Bazar here, the entrance to Naman Electricals is blocked by a plastic rope tied across it.
"This is for social distancing. We allow customers to enter the shop but this helps in keeping gap between them," the sales person said pointing to the rope.
Appreciating the shop's action, N Rajesh who came to buy a part of water pump said,"Since this coronavirus has no medicine, we have to understand that social distancing is the best medicine so far. It is reassuring to see something like this in a shop as we have the fear of this disease on the back of mind while stepping out of home."
PC Jain, one of the oldest book stores in the city, too has a plastic rope tied across its entrance for similar purpose. Its owner, Vikash Jain told a lady who came to buy a medical examination entrance test preparation book for her son to come after a week as it was not in stock.
"This is the issue. At this point of time due to the lockdown I am not able to give an exact time frame to customers when the books that they want will be available due to transportation problems," he said.
As such, he said,"Sales of general books have been on the decline due to the advent of online medium even before the lockdown. What we were mainly selling was academic books but as more schools and colleges are also conducting online classes during the lockdown, we do feel there is a question mark over the future of our business of running a book store."
Sharing concerns over supplies, a salesman at KDS Agency, a hardware and electronics store located at Sangakhpam in the outskirts of the city, said,"What we are selling from today is the old stocks that we had before the lockdown. We really don't know how supplies will be when we run out of stocks."
Similarly, a sales executive at Mi4, a modern retail outlet dealing with grocery and household items said,"Earlier stocks were sent by the distributor to our store but during the lockdown we have to go ourself to pick up. Supply of items has been an issue."
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