After giving steep discounts of up to 40-50% before the rollout of Goods and Services Tax (GST), retailers have now doled out similar offers for Aadi sale.
Shopping hubs in the State are flooded with sign boards with tempting offers like 50% off and 80% off, but shoppers feel that there is not much of a price difference with GST being implemented on the bills.
“The board outside the shop says 80% discount but the product still bears the same price tag (when GST is added). While buying certain products after the GST is added you get the old inflated price. There is hardly any discount,” said K. Priyadarsini, who was shopping at a popular textile house at T.Nagar.
While some retailers are using this as an opportunity to clear all their old stocks in the godowns, a few are already running out of stock.
Swarna, a regular shopper at T. Nagar, said this time the options were fewer at textile showrooms. “Either the products were out of stock or discounts were not that great,” she added.
“Shoppers may find that there are not great discounts for products they want or it would be out of stock. That is because dealers had started cutting inventory from June in anticipation of GST. Many wanted to avoid the problem of old stocks and also MRP related issues. That’s why we saw huge pre-GST discounts,” said Lawyer and Tax Consultant, K.Vaitheeswaran.
Started in Tirunelveli
Two things happen during the Aadi sale season which begins from July 15 — disposal of old stock and discount on goods sold. It was textiles-firm Pothys that pioneered this concept in Tirunelveli with the objective of disposing excess, unsold and slow moving stock. The idea was well received by shoppers and slowly other retailers in T.Nagar, the retail capital of Tamil Nadu, followed suit.
A.N. Muthukumar, who runs the home appliances showroom Muthukumar and Co in Madurai, said this year early signs indicate a lull. “Most of the home appliances retailers had a GST clearance sale. Moreover, post GST, the price has gone up roughly from 4 to 8%,” he said.
“It’s business as usual for us,” said Pothys’ Managing Director Varun Ramesh.
D. Rex, Sales Manager of Vasanth and Co, Tirunelveli, said, “Despite attractive discounts this Aadi, the inflow of customers to the shop was not as usual. Though GST did not impact the cost of products much, it created a negative impression among customers that products have turned costlier,” he added. In Dindugal, K. Veera Kumar, owner, Aravindha Cellphones, was optimistic and said that Aadi would be good for him. “Shoppers from villages come scouting for discounts during this season as GST means little to them” he said.
In Coimbatore, discount sale by big brands commenced mid-June.
“Shops witnessed surging crowds on June 30, the peak of pre-GST sales. From July 1, the crowd stabilized to normal. We expect an increase for Aadi,” said N.A. Sujatha, Marketing Manager, Brookefields Mall, Coimbatore.
(With inputs from K. Raju in Dindigul, J. Praveen Paul Joseph in Thoothukudi, Pon Vasanth Arunachalam in Madurai, Wilson Thomas in Coimbatore and R. Krishnamoorthy in Tiruchi