KOCHI: With the city gearing up for yet another school reopening, parents have joined the frantic chase to get all the essential goodies for their little ones. The Ernakulam market has become the centrestage of activities. Mothers weighed down by a multitude of shopping bags are seen coaxing their little ones away from shops to shops. The children, meanwhile, tug on to their mother’s saree pleading for a little green umbrella or a ‘Spiderman’ bag. The pavements are already crowded with everything from school bags to tiffin boxes to uniforms. Kamaludeen, a hawker at Broadway, takes to selling plastic tiffin boxes and pencil boxes every year during the school-reopening season. “I get to make about `600 to `700 daily. I take a break from my work in textile shop to do the business,” said Kamaludeen, even as he hands over half a dozen tiffin boxes to one of his many customers. He has been following the routine for the past 7 years, and going by the crowd surrounding his pavement shop, Kamaludeen seems to be doing brisk business.Like elsewhere in the city, retailers too have filled their shops with school goods. The Bombay Dyeing showroom on MG Road saw heavy increase in the sale of school uniforms this year, despite the fact that most schools provide uniforms to their students. “We have noted a 32-45 percent increase in sales. There is a huge demand for cotton-polyester Teri cotton wears, since most parents prefer it to ‘the pure-cotton stuff’ as they are good for daily use,” said Mohammad Yaseen, assistant sales manager of Bombay Dyeing. “The trend of schools providing the uniforms does not seem to have affected our sales. Since the last four years the sales in uniforms have been steadily increasing at least by 20 percent each year,” he said. However, price rise has come as a blow to the parents and to some extent to retailers. “This time the prices of most goods have gone up. The highest increase in the case of school shoes, that has gone up by 35 to 40 percent in most brands. Items like raincoat have seen an increase of about 20-25 percent. School bags, umbrellas and other related items have also seen an increase of about 15 percent,” said C Ravi, who runs ‘Fashion Bag Palace’ at Broadway.“One pair of uniform, including the tie and socks and other items comes upto `1,500. Leaving aside the school books, the whole cost of uniforms, bags, shoes and other items comes to around `5,000 for a child,” says Biji Jino, mother of an 11-year-old.Inflation has crept into school books too this year. “There has been an increase of around `500 in the price of books. While the price was `1,800 last year it has gone up to `2,300 this year for a Class VI student. Besides, there is a difference of about `200-`300 in prices between the open market and retail shops, says Suchitra Johnson, mother of a Class VI student of St Aloysious School.
Comments
0 comment