Oct. 28 in Chennai Even though there are more people in buying areas and cheap stores during the holiday season, store owners in Chennai say that sales are down in many of their stores.

A cracker shop owner in Chennai’s Anna Nagar (East), R. Janakiraman, told IANS, “The factory price of popular crackers like ‘Kuruvi,’ ‘Chain crackers,’ ‘Knockout,’ and other items has gone through the roof.” When we add our profit margin to the prices, they go up a lot, which could be why customers are leaving.

Janakiraman says that the number of sales has dropped from about Rs 4 to 5 lakh at this time last year to about Rs 3 to 4 lakh this year. Compared to last year, he said, daily sales have dropped by about Rs 1 lakh, and prices have gone up by 15%.

He said that the price increase was because fewer fireworks were being made.

Karthiyani, a school teacher from Purasawalkam, Chennai, who is 54 years old, said that since 2023, the prices of important Deepavali items like crackers, diyas, sweets, gold, and clothes have gone up by 15 to 20 percent.

She said that gold costs at least Rs 2,000 more per gram and that diyas cost more than 25% more than they did last year.

“I paid Rs 5,000 for a bag of crackers last year, but this year I could only get about Rs 3.5 times that amount for the same price,” she said.

She also said that the cost of cashew candy in Sowcarpet has gone up from Rs 600 per kg in 2023 to Rs 800 this year.

Many store owners said that online sales are also hurting their own sales, even though there were a lot of people in stores on Sunday, the last weekend before Deepavali.

Suchitra Nair, a housewife, told IANS about her shopping experience: “All essential Deepavali items have become more expensive, which has caused fewer sales.” To save money, I chose to buy fewer things.

Some store owners are hoping that sales will go up today and tomorrow because many people going from Chennai to their home cities may buy things at the last minute, which would increase sales generally.

The Ramanathapuram Street Merchants’ Association also noticed a drop in sales over the past few days. Even on Sunday, there wasn’t as much business as there was last year, but they’re hopeful that things will get better soon.