Srinagar, July 17: Amid frantic business activities on Saturday, when markets opened for half day after over a fortnight, the customers’ tall order remained confined to only few essential items, with many items not attracting even a single customer.
“There is tremendous rush, the customers are just for a few items. Items other than essential have no takers,” said a shopkeeper dealing in cosmetics.
“People are purchasing grocery, edibles, vegetables, fruits, medicines – that are items of daily use. Fearing the situation may further worsen people want to get more and more essential commodities,” he said.
“Keeping in view the hardships we faced during the curfew days and uncertainty about future, it is sensible to buy grocery items, flour, rice, etc,” said Rayees Ahmad, a customer from Rainawari at a provisional store.
The items that witnessed heavy public demand included vegetables, rice, fruits, medicines, grocery, bread, etc.
“There is huge rush for grocery, rice flour etc,” said Muhammad Amin a provisional store owner at Hawal.
Most of the shopkeepers selling fruits, vegetables, mutton, bakery, etc said that they were witnessing huge rush since the early morning hours.
“For the past over twenty days we are facing a shortage of essential commodities. Today it is an opportunity for us to make the purchase so we won’t lose it. I am making purchase of all essentials in large quantity fearing the situation may lead to further curfews and strikes,” said Mushtaq Ahmad of Nowhatta who was carrying three bags full of flour, vegetables and grocery.
The chemist shops also witness a huge rush today with people seen buying the medicines in good quantity.
The meat shops across the valley also witnessed good sales today with large number of people flocking them.
“The rush was so high that I sold my entire stocks in just two hours,” said Abdul Majeed a butcher at Lal Bazaar.
“It took me half an hour to wait for my turn to get 1 kg of meat the rush was so high,” added a customer.
The mobile recharge shops were also in huge demand today and many people were waiting in these shops to get their mobile phones recharged.
“People were not able to recharge their phones all these days. We witnessed huge demand for the same today,” said Majeed Adil a STD shop owner at Nowhatta.
Despite rush there were host of items and shops that did not attract the customers. “There are no takers for gold jewellery, stationary, footwear, clothes, etc today,” said a shopkeeper.

Lastupdate on : Sat, 17 Jul 2010 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Sat, 17 Jul 2010 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Sun, 18 Jul 2010 00:00:00 IST