Rain, high price take sparkle out of business

As usual, there are around 1,000 cracker shops have been set up at Island Grounds for sellers from across the State. However, there has not been much enthusiasm from businessmen this year. “Compared to the previous years, there are lesser number of sellers this time. Even customers have not turned up in good numbers. The business is very disappointing this year, and the supply, too, has remained low after many traders suffered loss last year due to the ban on firecrackers,” said J Kishore, a firecracker retailer.

There are hardly any shops that sell green crackers, which are priced at least 30 per cent higher than the regular ones. “Though these crackers are available, there is no specific demand for them from the customers,” said cracker sellers.

“Compared to the usual business during Deepavali, the sale has come down by 30 to 50 per cent this year. Last year, the ban on firecrackers affected our business and the introduction of green crackers has not done any good for us.

The market is low and Deepavali seems to be dull this year,” said Ravi Kumar, a firecracker seller from Sivakasi, the cracker manufacturing hub.

Not only retailers, even customers blame the rain for the dip in demand, with rain expected on Deepavali day, too. The retailers say that while there used to be bulk orders from individual consumers in the previous years, there are very few such orders this time around.