Retailers make a killing hawking poll merchandise: Mumbai

Mumbai: Retailers are cashing in on election merchandise as the Lok Sabha polls inch closer. From saris, jackets, handbags and t-shirts to scarfs, hoodies, masks and balloons and other election merchandise has found its way to shops across the city. Cashing in on the frenzy are retailers from Lalbaug Bazaar to Ghatkopar and Dadar.

A few shops in Lalbaug’s streets have been decorated with flags and banners as political parties struggle to get the voters’ attention. With the elections set to begin, so are the promotional rallies and speeches.

S.A. Tendolkar, shop owner of Tendolkar shop, said, “It’s a busy time where we are cashing in on it with election-related materials. This is the time when we shopkeepers at Lalbaug swap our wares with something much more profitable i.e. party merchandise.”

Standing inside his shop, now strewn with masks of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Congress president Rahul Gandhi, chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, and Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray, Mr Tendolkar said that in 1985, he had turned his family’s ancestral cloth shop into one specialising in the sale of election paraphernalia.

Whereas in areas where the business community is in a majority i.e. Ghatkopar, Nileshbhai Mehta’s Jainam store has been selling such props for 11 years but this year, he has ventured into selling scarfs and neck kerchiefs in party colours.

“The market is slow due to the summer’s humidity. I have received major orders. Party members and independent candidates are coming and taking quotations and sample pieces,” he said.