Closed local stores create ways to reach out to customers in lockdown time

“Do you have a table fan?”
“Yes, we do…who is calling?”
“Calling from Mandaveli”
The man asks a few more questions and arranges for the fan though his shop is now closed. It is for a senior couple whose fan has broken down and they cannot manage the searing agni natchatram heat of 39 degrees plus.
“I am not supposed to open my store and take away stuff but then life has to go on,” he tells us later. “I wanted to make sure the call was not from the local police.”

New rules of the lockdown has meant a business washout for all retail stores in Mylapore. Even the ones allowed to open for a few hours find the exercise wasteful and earn very little.

But these shop owners aren’t giving up. They have pasted posters or notices on their gates or shutters, putting out their contact6 numbers, promising people to deliver stuff they want.

Inner-wear and nighties,  stationery and electrical accessories,  kitchen wares and snacks . . . shops that sell these and more are  putting the word out and these posters are their only way to get the word across in case clients come by their stores.

You see this on store shutters –  in Luz Circle and on Kutchery Road and R. K. Mutt Road, in Mandaveli and off R. H. Road.

  • Details, photo by Kathiravan

(( )) KNOW of your favourite store which uses WhatsApp or other ways to keep his/her business going? Tell us the story in 3 lines!