Hyderabad: As Hyderabadis burst crackers past midnight on Diwali, firecracker traders had a good day at work with sales picking up at the last minute. The larger shops with a range of crackers saw customers throng their stores all through Diwali day — buying sky shots, rockets, flowerpots, and sparklers. Despite their promise of being eco-friendly, sellers claimed that buyers weren't too keen on green crackers and, instead, went with the new and innovative products on offer.
"There were a lot of new sellers competing this time. Yet, we saw large crowds at our shop. We have not finalised our accounts, but we are positive that we did good business. People were particularly interested in aerial fireworks and new varieties. The most popular items were 30-shot sky crackers and multi-coloured rockets," said the owner of a large cracker shop near RTC X Roads. According to him, the average spend was anywhere between of 1,000 and 5,000.
"There has been a lot of demand for new items, and customers wanted more of a visual spectacle. Though we brought three crates of bombs, we barely sold two packets," said the owner of a cracker shop in Balkampet.
Meanwhile, in Secunderabad, Ravi Kumar said he had a poor Diwali. "Business was not as good as expected. High prices and competition from larger shops affected our sales. We could barely sell 50% of our stock as the rent for the open ground was too high for us," he said adding how larger wholesale players are at an advantage as they have the storage space to hold unsold crackers for next year and not incur a loss.
Praneeth Raj, a customer, said, "My children were excited about the new varieties, especially the two-way disco ground discs and the sphere pots." Another customer, Radha Krishna, added, "The prices were a little higher this year, but we bought a combination of large single shots and multiple shots."