Apparel and footwear shops are undergoing a sea change as there are several ‘touch’ points. In fact, this business segment is all about trial, touch and feel. The dichotomy for a shopkeeper is to whether to allow a customer to touch, feel, try the apparel or footwear or not. Most of the shopkeepers have now been politely asking their customers to “try” as little as possible. In fact, some of them have even gone further to say “buy then try”. This is all because the unsold but “tried” clothes or footwear needs to be quarantined for about a day, sanitised and then kept back on shelves.
Managing Director of Bharne Group, Samrudh Bharne believes that the business is steady but people are buying only the essentials and not much of formal items. “As far as fashion is concerned, we have to allow trials as without trials people are not willing to buy. If we do not allow trials we will land only half of the business what we are doing now. However, once a customer tries and the product is not sold, we quarantine that item for about a day and then steam press it before keeping back on the shelves. This is purely a safety measure. We are also requesting the customers to reduce the number of trials. Right now majority of the sale is in the section of undergarments, T-shirts, shorts and sportswear like joggers and track pants etc. I have not sold a single wedding dress or a suit for last three months,” said Samrudh Bharne.
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Footwear shop “Crocks” in Panjim points a thermal gun right at the entry and then sanitises ones feet and hands before any trial. Salesman Ajay Yadav said, “We segregate all tried footwear, sanitise it before keeping back on the shelves. The safety is not only for the customers, it is for us too.”
Similarly the Bata store at St. Inez in Panjim is maintaining the same precaution. Sunil Salgaoker the store manager said that, “the sale is not too good. This time around there used to be rush of customers asking for monsoon season footwear but the market is down. However, we take utmost precaution in terms of hygiene and health with all the customers coming in now.”
