PANJIM: Goa has not only seen many shops shutting down during the pandemic but the positive part was that many shops particularly eateries, grocery shops, pharmacies and apparel shops have opened all across the City.
Many of these new shops which sprung up saw opportunity while others diverted from their earlier business which was not feasible due to lack of customers, particularly tourists.
Sweet Nation, an eatery which specialises in north Indian dishes opened up in Campal on August 4. “We saw that there was a positive response from the market, not to mention, by July, most restaurants in Goa were open and the demand for food had started rising slowly once again. At the end of the day, it is a pandemic for everybody, so the playing field is still level. We decided to open our store on the basis of the impeccable hygiene we maintain and the quality of food we produce and serve. The demand was there, it only needed to be met,” said partner at Sweet Nation, Namiya Tripathi.
When asked whether she felt online business could affect their sales, Namiya Tripathi replied, “Online platforms for the purchase of food have been a blessing. The team at Swiggy has been incredibly helpful, wasting no time to onboard us onto their platform. Food has always been a tricky product category for third-party logistics players. This is because of the perishability of food. Swiggy has managed to do this well primarily because of their strong network of delivery people concentrated in the area. This network has been a big boon to people in the fresh food industry. The only area we have had to focus is on making all our products and packaging takeaway-friendly, which has been an interesting journey for our entire team.”
On the issue of getting labour she said they have been fortunate to not have faced these issues. “I would like to extend my gratitude to my entire team for sticking with us and being supportive during these trying times. The culture in our organisation is a caring a nurturing one. We try to ensure as a team that every last man reaches the finishing line,” added Tripathi.
Two entrepreneurs who were in the business of selling cashew had to move to another business as ‘there were no buyers and tourists this season’. One of them opened a sweet shop which the other opened a grocery shop.
Ajay Rajpurohit who opened a new sweet shop ‘Mishra Peda’ in Taleigaon hardly a week ago had to shelve his earlier business of cashew shop at Porvorim. “I had no business in cashew shop but now I am getting fairly good business. Yes, location and type of business also matters for the success. However, in Porvorim there are several new shops which opened up recently. This area (Taleigaon) was not having a nice sweet shop and hence it helped in getting good sales. Thankfully, we had staff to work for us.”
Similarly, Haresh Pandya who has a cashew shop at Dona Paula asked his son Dhawal Pandya to open a grocery shop in Caranzalem. “We opened a grocery shop about three weeks ago and it is doing much better than the cashew business as people even during the COVID-19 times require groceries for their kitchens to run,” said partner at Goa Wholesale Grocery, Haresh Pandya.
Mayur Patel opened another shop, Manish Supermarket at Tonca. “We were told by our friend that on a reasonable rental a shop was available and that gave us the idea to open a general store which has items of daily use. The business as of now is not good but will pick gradually after people come to know,” said Mayur Patel whose shop opened in later September.
Apart from these there are several pharmaceuticals and druggists shop like Flora in Tonca along with several grocery shops have mushroomed like never before in Panjim and Taleigao area.
