You'd have thought that Jagmohan Singh, president of the Greater Kailash Trader's Association in the capital, would have hurrahed the Delhi administration's decision to let shops in the Capital stay open till 11 pm, instead of the 7 pm.
For years the Capital has been a dreary place after 7 pm, with little night life and most Delhi residents heading indoors. More importantly, no one splurged at shops after the 7 pm deadline.
But Singh and his fellow traders at the upscale Greater Kailash locality are less than pleased -- they claim that the new order will prove unviable for most shop owners in this market.
"We have about 170 members in our market association. Not even 50 per cent of them want the order to be implemented," he says.
After the initial euphoria over the Delhi government's decision to allow shops to be open till 11 pm, and restaurants till midnight (the order is expected to come into force by September 15, but does not make it mandatory for shops to be open till 11 pm, leaving it to the discretion of owners), Delhi's associations of traders, especially those in the better off south Delhi, are divided on how beneficial the deadline relaxation will be for them.
They express concerns about security and fear that any so called profits will be wiped out by the additional overheads and extra staff costs.
Indeed, there is talk of wholesalers and the bigger market associations in south Delhi submitting another representation to Chief Minister Sheila Dixit asking her to reconsider the order.
Singh asks whether the government has thought of the kind of security arrangements that will have to be put in place if only 50 shops in a given market remain open. Bigger south Delhi shop owners share similar concerns about security.
Most of them deposit their daily collection in banks by about 4 pm, when most banks close. The rest of the day's collections are either left behind or carried back home. Will it be safe for them carry back big amounts after 11 pm?
The Connaught Place-based New Delhi Trader's Association, however, is most pleased by the extension of the shop closing deadline. According to NDTA president Manoj Agarwal, retailers of garments, shoes, jewellery and furnishings are set to benefit greatly from the new deadline.
"If shops are allowed to be open till 11 pm for seven days a week, I see profit margins easily going up by 15-25 per cent," he says.
The overheads and expenditure on hiring additional staff, according to Agarwal, will be adequately offset by the higher sales.
The main argument of Agarwal and others, who had submitted the representation to the chief minister, was that malls in Gurgaon are open till midnight and pull in office goers and younger people who don't have the time to shop during the day or prefer to spend the evening shopping.
But traders' associations at the upscale Khan Market and Greater Kailash, areas where one might expect a similar clientele to frequent, differ.
Singh says that it is wrong to argue that mall owners in Gurgaon make profits at the cost of their Delhi counterparts. The argument is invalid because most of these malls make their profits during weekends.
"A mall like Ansal Plaza will be close to empty on a weekday. How can they afford to keep their shops open that late," he asks.
Sanjiv Mehra, president of the Khan Market Trader's Association, says that the trader's representation was misconstrued by the government.
"We expect the same number of customers to come to us in a given time span, whether we close shop at 6 pm or 11 pm. After all, nobody is going to buy what they can't afford to buy," he contends.
Sanjay Sahani, the chairman of the Lajpat Nagar Trader's Association, however says that extending the shop closing deadline is a move that is in keeping with what can be expected in future.
Admitting that retailers at Lajpat Nagar were divided over the move, he says that shop owners in the "organised" sector who can afford a double shift and a weekly off for their staff will benefit, but small shop owners will have to take into account the cost of running the establishment and not all might be able to afford this.
The one group that is not complaining, however, is restaurant owners. More may dine out for longer hours, making India's Capital city a little less dull at night than it used to be.
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