Christmas shopping takes major hit due to cash crunch

Bhaskar, a 30-year-old engineer looked discontent while coming out of a bakery shop. Owing to the shortage of cash he was unable to purchase the confectionaries he required.

Although the festivities have been affected due to the demonetisation move, the enthusiasm to celebrate Christmas has not died out.

The Park Street area is already dazzling with lights and decorations. Indians, Anglo Indians and foreigners have already started gathering for the grand celebration on December 25.

“Like every year, this year too we have our rich fruit cakes as a special delicacy for Christmas. The number of customers is more or less the same this year but their purchases have fallen due to the shortage of cash. We have not introduced Paytm but we did apply for a swipe machine with the State Bank of India which we are yet to be receive,” said Jagadish Halder, the manager of Nahoum’s, one of Kolkata oldest Jewish bakeries.

“My profit limit per day has fallen from Rs 400 to Rs 100 as compared to last year. I am facing a lot of trouble to procure goods from the wholesaler as well because he does not accept anything other than cash. I don’t have provisions for Paytm yet. A lot of buyers do come up to me, but they do not buy anything due to the shortage of cash,” said Abhinash Mochi, a roadside vendor who sells Christmas merchandise.

Vendors like Munnu Nazmi who have provisions for payment through Paytm, informed that they did not face too much trouble.

Babloo Ghosh, the owner of a woollen garment store expressed his worries that he had been facing due to the note ban as he did not have provision for using credit/debit cards and Paytm cash.

“There has been a 25 per cent fall in our sales this season due to demonetisation. We have been using swipe machines from a long time now and we have introduced Paytm recently. We have got special trinket earrings, light weight earrings and charm bracelets for the customers for this festive season,” said Norkila Sherpa, the owner of Chamba Lama.