The pubs, restaurants and clubs of Gurugram have always been popular not only with the residents of the city but also with residents from other parts of National Capital Region (NCR) who come to Gurugram to celebrate New Year. Over the years along with the restaurants and pubs in the five star hotels in the city, the popularity of standalone restaurants, pubs and clubs have also surged.
There is a heavy rush of traffic during New Year’s Eve not only on the MG Road but also on Golf Course Road, Sector 29, Sohna Road where most of the standalone restaurants and pubs are.
However, this time, the New Year celebrations in Gurugram may just turn out to be gloomy.
Even as New Year this time falls during the weekend, most of the restaurant owners highlighted that due to demonetisation, there have been less bookings this year.
To entice customers, most of the owners have also lowered their prices of the services offered.
Most of the owners mentioned that as there is a lot of investment which is being done during for the celebrations. But since there is a dip in the rush this time, chances are higher that most of the pubs this time will incur heavy losses.
Unlike earlier, where most of the owners used to advertise their offers two weeks in advance, most of them have tried to avoid the cost and rather been dependent on their loyal customers.
“I don’t think there will be a single restaurant in Gurugram which has not been affected by the demonetisation of higher currency notes. In our case, there has been a forty per cent reduction in business and we are really counting on our profit that we will earn from this New Year. We have reduced our prices from Rs 8,000 per couple to Rs 6,000,” said Virendra, manager of a pub on the Golf Course Road.
“Even though we have all the facilities for people to transact digitally, the fact is that there are a lot of transactions that are done in cash and with the people still reeling under the effects of cash crunch, the restaurants and pubs will bear the losses,” added Virendra.
“There is no doubt that scrapping of higher currency notes have affected our business and there may be a possibility that many of us may not be able to break even. I, however, still feel we can overcome the challenges of demonetisation if we enhance our services and price it wisely,” said Geet Wadhwa owner of a pub on the Gurugram–Faridabad Road.