KL NEWS NETWORK
SRINAGAR
While the retail is itself facing serious fall in the volumes in last 15 weeks of unrest, whatever trade takes places it is happening at Maximum Retail Price (MRP) and not the minimum retail price. It is happening across the trade lines including stationary, hosiery, provisions and even in the medicines.
“I expected that the retailers could reduce their margins on all items so that we could survive,” a bus driver, who has not worked for all these days, said. “I asked one provision store and he said he may not discount but he can give things on credit.”
Retails works for its own margins. Sellers who wish to accommodate clients reduce their own margins which impacts their profits.
Certain sectors have inherently huge margins which could be shared between the consumer and the retailer. Medicines, for instance, have nearly one-third of their MRP as retailer’s margin. In hosiery it is almost the same. Stationers have perhaps more margins unlike the text books.
In last 15 weeks, most of the Kashmir workforce has not worked at all. Savings have already drained in the middle class society. In certain classes and professions, survival is getting slightly difficult. Though charities work around but they lack volumes to manage a vast population.
In such situations, sections of masses were expecting that the retail would reduce costs slightly but that has not happened.
Retail is itself under tremendous pressure to survive. They work for small durations and their supply chains have stopped supplying things on credit and now insist on cash payments. This has put more pressures on them to manage more cash so that they store things.
There have been certain instances in which the medical shops were offering free medicines to the people who were injured or were in distress. Now, it has stopped. Most of the pharma stores seek full payments strictly as per the stickers on the drug packaging.
