The sale of paints and colouring items for households is witnessing almost 25 per cent fall compared with last year despite the ongoing festive season.
Although the prices of crude oil, which forms the primary solvent for various paints, have come down vis-à-vis last year, the consumer interest has not picked up accordingly.
According to Uttar Pradesh Paint Dealers' Association (UPPDA) Secretary Sanjay Mittal, the main reason behind this uncanny trend is the steep rise in prices of food products, when the households are not focused on renovating or painting the houses.
“The demand from rural households has also come down steeply due to the delayed and untimely monsoons, which have ruined the rural populace subsisting primarily on agriculture,” he added.
Usually, the rural households are considered to be more particular regarding renovation and painting on Diwali due to their stricter adherence to customs.
Mittal said usually, the sale of paints and coloured enamels started to pick up around Eid and continued to boom till Diwali but this year the situation continues to be grim.
The city’s well-known interior decorator Rashi Designer’s owner Raghuvansh Pandey said the renovation and decoration orders had also declined this year steeply notwithstanding the ongoing Hindu wedding season.
“It seems that people want to spend less as the last one year of recession coupled with inflated food prices has burnt the pockets of middle class earners, who are mostly salaried professionals. Despite our repeated cajoling, a number of our clients have postponed the refurbishing exercises till new year,” added Pandey.
Still, the salespersons and dealers are leaving no stone unturned to promote their sales by engaging free-of-cost painters for anyone who has surface area of up to 350 square feet to be painted, apart from various promotional and discount offers even though prices have registered a dip compared with last year.
