Lockdown 3.0: Stores in Imphal reopen, customers trickle in with mixed feelings

Several shops, including those of hardware, stationery, apparels, and book stores, reopened here in Manipur's capital on the first day of the third phase of lockdown with humble plastic ropes tied across entrances at many places serving as reminders of social distancing norms.

With the state being in the green zone, many shopkeepers here are just happy to reopen after nearly two months of downing shutters, although several of them expressed concerns over supplies of stock in the near term and changed consumer behaviour in a world upended by the coronavirus pandemic in the long term.

As for consumers, stepping out after a long period of confinement during the health crisis carries a mixed feeling -- of being able to buy items on shopping list for a while but unable to purchase due to the lockdown and the fear of COVID-19 hanging in the air.

"We've not had too many customers so far. It's the first day of opening the shop since we shut it from March 22. Today has been more or less about cleaning and dusting the shop," Gurinder Singh owner of Blue Bell, one of the oldest apparel stores in the city, told PTI.

When asked how confident is he of customers coming back in large number after the health crisis blows over, Singh said,"Hopefully in the days to come people will start coming but then this is a problem not just in Manipur but the world over where it has changed so many things. Let's see what future holds."
Appreciating the shop's action, N Rajesh who came to buy a part of water pump said,"Since this coronavirus has no medicine, we have to understand that social distancing is the best medicine so far. It is reassuring to see something like this in a shop as we have the fear of this disease on the back of mind while stepping out of home."
As such, he said,"Sales of general books have been on the decline due to the advent of online medium even before the lockdown. What we were mainly selling was academic books but as more schools and colleges are also conducting online classes during the lockdown, we do feel there is a question mark over the future of our business of running a book store."
Sharing concerns over supplies, a salesman at KDS Agency, a hardware and electronics store located at Sangakhpam in the outskirts of the city, said,"What we are selling from today is the old stocks that we had before the lockdown. We really don't know how supplies will be when we run out of stocks."