Rains wash away city retailers' Rs 200 cr

The Retailers' Association of India (RAI) has pegged the loss of retail business on account of the recent rains in Mumbai to the tune of Rs 200 crore.

The estimates take into account the organised retail sector in and around Mumbai between June 30 and July 5 when there was 60-70 per cent drop in the footfalls at various retail outlets.

Gibson Vedamani, CEO, RAI, said the drastic drop in footfalls was due to the fear of a repeat of the 26/7 and the waterlogging at many places.

"A large number of malls and shops had to put their shutter down by 5 pm as a result of the torrential rains and the subsequent panic caused by the heavy showers," he said.

The slump was mainly felt in the lifestyle segment as people deferred their weekend purchases. On the other hand, necessities and commodities witnessed significant sales as a result of panic buying. However, this was restricted to supermarkets and other shops in the catchment areas.

Damodar Mall, president, food business division, Pantaloon Retail, said since it was the peak time for food and grocery sales as this being the first week of the month, the category was not hit so badly.

But here too, he added, there was a problem of stock outs as the retailers were not ready for the tremendous demand that they saw. Mall further said that the bigger problem was the replenishments not coming in from stockists as a result of the rains.