Vipul Samanth
October 26, 2020
Small scale business of Manipal family to shut down due to less customers, lack of labourers and increase in prices of goods.
Pandey’s Official logo
( Source: Pandey’s)
Since the multiple nationwide lockdowns were imposed by the Government of India beginning from earlier this year in March, many people especially those running small scale businesses have been affected because of the lockdowns. Their work has stopped and the laborers were forced to migrate back to their homes.
Such a case has occurred in Manipal City where a family popularly known as Pandey’s, who have been running a business of sweets, chats and snacks from their home here in Manipal for decades now, has decided to put an end to their business after the Diwali season.
The reason is lack of labourers, increase in prices of goods and very less customers. Since the whole lockdown, the traveling for people in search of jobs has been an issue and because of the virus people were scared to go anywhere in their locality let alone travel to another state.
Workers who work for Pandey’s are from Uttar Pradesh. Pandey’s have always been first to give a chance to those in desperate need of jobs from their state of Uttar Pradesh. And now, since lockdown they’ve had problems getting more workers.
Along with that their main customers, who are the students of MAHE, bakeries and hotels are gone. The pandemic sent students to their homes, closed all the hotels, bakeries and shops except the essential ones.
The snacks that were considered unhealthy or unhygienic faced problems making it to the essential shops during this period of time. And even after the lockdown rules were lightened, such foods were continuously avoided by the majority of the people who worried for their health.
The head of their family business — R K Pandey decided to shut the business down due to all these reasons. His grandson Vikas Pandey, while speaking to us also said “Since there is no telling when things will get back to normal it’s hard to continue. But if things get even slightly better after Diwali, we might give it a chance. But as for now it’s only till Diwali. And as far as the workers issue goes, it’s hard to find workers, and once we find them there’s no saying if they will agree to come along all the way from UP to Manipal. And some of those who do, don’t stay for a long time.”
Pandey’s would let the workers stay with them throughout their time in Manipal.
Pandey’s have decided to opt for one last run till Diwali as Diwali is a huge time of the year for those who prepare and sell sweets. While this year the sales may not be the same, it’s still a wise move from their side to continue till the Diwali season and earn as much as possible and then if things don’t go well, wrap everything up.
They prepare items like Gulab Jamuns, Rasmalai, Pani Puri, Bhel Puri, Samosas, Kachouris etc. In fact, R K Pandey introduced chats and snacks to Manipal decades ago when he first started.
Pandey’s has two other branches, one in Surathkal and one in Mangalore. Run by R K Pandey’s two sons. And they too have been facing similar problems but the customer numbers are comparatively more there than here in Manipal.
Edited by: Shreya Gupta