An austere festival time

Onam season is not just about happiness and togetherness, it’s also the time when local businesses and vendors get to harvest big money. However, in the aftermath of the floods in Kerala, the festive mood has disappeared from the state. People are busy buying essentials and handing it over to relief camps. Those who were affected by the floods are now slowly getting back to their lives; some starting with cleaning their homes and surroundings, whereas some have to start everything from the scratch.

Be it Thiruvananthapuram, Kochi, Thrissur or any major city in the state, the shops aren’t seeing the Onam rush. From hotels to restaurants, flower shops, jewellery, textiles, fancy stores and street sellers, everyone is having a dull Onam this time around. Seeing empty roads during the festive season sums up how the calamity has affected the state. The state government has decided to cancel all celebrations and the funds will be donated to relief works. This is the case with different hotels, IT companies, other firms etc; everyone has cancelled their celebrations to show solidarity to the flood-affected people.

Broadway in Kochi is a major commercial hub and Onam is one of the peak seasons. However, the vacant shopping streets and gloomy faces of vendors clearly portray how the floods have affected their business. “The jewellery business has gone down. The business went to a record low when the city was affected by floods. I’ve never seen Broadway this empty. The festive mood is completely gone and people are trying to get their lives back on track. Our regular customers came to the market to buy material for the relief camps. The only sale happening is the material for the camps. In the last 2-3 days, people have been coming to buy jewellery. But this is nowhere near the usual Onam sale. Onam sale won’t be there for any shops this time. It will take at least 15-20 days for the market to get stabilised,” says S.S. Pai, Managing Director of A. Geeri Pai Jewellers. He also urges everyone to stand united in rebuilding the state as they were in the time of calamity.

Chingam is the time when flower sellers get busy. Several weddings and events were cancelled due to the calamity and this has severely impacted the flower sellers. “Usually we don’t even get the time to drink a tea during Onam season. Uthradom day and the day before is when we have most of the sales. Since most of the weddings are cancelled and the ones that took place were held in an austere manner, the revenue has dried up. This is the case with all the shops at Broadway. And the worst case is the flowers aren’t even coming. The only order we have is for the temples, which is constant. It will take substantial time for business to bounce back,” says Venu, a flower vendor who has been running his establishment in Broadway for the last 48 years.

The fancy stores, where common people shop the most during this season, are having a bad phase too. Many of the shops were flooded and the stock got damaged. The sellers even say that new stock will be only reaching after Onam. “We were recovering from the aftermath of demonetisation. Now, the floods have put us in trouble. People used to buy items for around Rs 5000 during Onam, now it has come down to Rs 500-750,” says Johnson, an employee at a fancy store.      

Lulu Mall in Edapally remained shut down the whole of last week due to technical damage caused by floods. The Onam offers and promotions were launched at the mall on August 1. The mall was reopened on Thursday and the sales seem to be getting back to normal. As a support to the relief works in the state, they have slashed the price of cleaning materials and chemicals, pulses, spices, sugar, rice, fruits, etc. “This is a support from our side to those who are coming back to their homes after the calamity. The Onam offers will continue till the end of the month and we have also introduced new offers at the electronic store. Many have lost appliances in the flood. So we are introducing special EMI packages for them. The sale has been good after we reopened. People are buying cleaning material and appliances. However, this cannot be termed as Onam sale,” says Sudheesh Nair, General Manager (Retail), Lulu Mall.

The textile industry is one sector that gets a major boost during the festive season. However, most of the leading textile brands affirm that the floods have affected their business. “Business or celebration is out of the question now. Most of the boutiques did their business in July itself as overseas customers needed their products to reach before Onam. Though I run an online boutique, I didn’t feel like doing business once the flood hit hard on our state. I feel every business in Thiruvananthapuram had a good run as most of the relief materials were transported from here. The mid-range garment shops would have got the best business as many went to buy relief material from there. The leading brands may have been affected,” says Sapna Sampath, who runs an online boutique.

Many of the hotels in the state are facing bulk cancellation. The hotels, restaurants and catering services were also forced to cancel Onam sadyas. Some hotels are giving the revenue from Onam sale to the relief fund too.

“It’s a great setback for the state. Our state has been affected by Ockhi, Nipah and now the floods. This literally broke the industry from right to left. The losses have been incredible and it will take at least 3-4 months to come back. Due to the floods, the airfares have gone really high and we can’t expect people to come at a short notice. The shutdown of Cochin airport was another setback. The only hope is the October-December season,” says H. Rajagopal Iyer, CEO, UDS Group of Hotels.