The Gazetteers Department

Retail Trade : The planned economic development during the post-Independence period has considerably helped the hitherto neglected and underdeveloped regions in the State and in this the district of Akola has its share. The modernised transport and communications as well as the expanded road development in the district have performed quick delivery of goods by rail and motor transport. There is an appreciable increase in the volume of retail trade and in the number of retail shops dealing with the various essential commodities of daily use in urban area as well as in rural areas of the district.

In the past there were a few shops doing retail trade over a large area. These shops were unable to meet the day-to-day needs of the growing population. The retail trade was, however supplemented by periodical markets and village fairs in distant localities.

These conditions have radically changed during the past fifty-years. Not only the number of retail shops has increased but the shops deal in a variety of goods, such as, grocery, cloth, pan-bid:, grains, etc., on a large scale. This change is markedly visible in urban than in rural areas of the district.

Retail shops are mainly dispersed in the main localities of the towns and enter to the needs of their respective localities. Their stock-in-trade requires limited capital but good tnrnover. At many of the wholesale trade centres, such as Washim, Murtizapur, Risod. Telhara and Malegaon there is not much of a distinction between wholesale and retail business as a few wholesalers also do retail business. But elsewhere, retail traders usually have dealings with outside merchants particularly in the cloth trade. Generally retail trade is mainly on cash basis but the practice of maintaining running accounts in big towns also is not altogether absent.

Akola, Karanja and Washim are the most important trading centres in regard to the number and turnover of the retail shops. Akot, Murtizapur, Telhara, Risod, Mangrulpir, Malegaon and Balapur stand next in importance.

Following are some of the observations regarding retail trade in the district, based on the information collected in the survey at some of the places, such as, Akola, Washim, Risod, Karanja, Malegaon, Akot, Murtizapur, Balapur and Telhara.

Grocery, pan-bidi, cloth, coal and vegetable shops are numerous and are evenly distributed in almost all the localities and wards of a town or a city. Bicycle being a convenient and cheap mode of transport a large number of cycle shops engaged in hiring and repairing of bicycles are found scattered in big villages and towns. In Akola town their number was found to be the largest. Shops dealing in medicines, stationery, footwear, general merchandise, sweetmeats, fruits, etc., are found only in the towns and big villages. Still other kinds of shops dealing in articles of seasonal or less regular demand e.g., jewellary, utensils, glassware, hardware, and building material, are seen to be concentrated in particular localities of the municipal and tahsil towns, while location of shops selling mutton and fish in few places is mainly due to the municipal regulations. These shops are not found in villages due to the absence of regular demand. One shop, sometimes, supplies besides grocery, stationery, medicine hardware, etc. These shops generally do brisk trade during the season extending from October to June. The peak season is reached during fairs and festivities. The value of stock-in-trade depends on the daily turnover of the business and varies considerably from a couple of hundred rupees to scores of thousands in case of a distant village shop and a shop located at a busy town.

Grocery Shops.—Retail trade of the district is mainly dominated by grocery shops because of their municipality and total turnover. There is a large number of grocery shops in every town or village. They sell cereals, pulses, gur, sugar, oil, ghee, tea, coffee, groundnut oil, coconut oil, hydrogenated oils, soaps,toilets, pencils, tobacco, confectionery, etc-, and other grocery articles. The grocers from tahsil places, such as, Akot, Washim, Balapur and Murtizapur buy grocery articles from Akola and from other wholesale trade centres, while a few shopkeepers have direct connections with outside merchants. The stock-in-trade of individual shops varies in value by a wide range from Rs. 100 to even over a lakh of rupees depending upon their urban or rural character and the size of the shop. A majority of the shops art, however, small at the tahsil level with a stock worth about Rs. 200 to Rs. 500. Quite a few' grocery shops at Akola were Inning stock-in-trade worth over Rs. 7 lakhs. Servants arc generally employed for handling and weighing commodities in bigger shops. The shopkeepers sometimes employ clerks and accountants for maintaining accounts Books.

Some of the grocers are found to be selling stationery and cutlery goods and common drugs. The grocers business in the urban area is thus of a more varied character. The big grocery shops at Akola, Karanja, Washim, Akot, Balapur, Telhara and Mangrulpir purchase their needs from local wholesalers or from Bombay, Nagpur and Amravati. The shopkeepers in villages purchase their stock-in-trade from the dealers in big towns in the district.

Cloth, Ready-made Clothes and Hosiery.—The cloth shops are mainly concentrated in towns and big villages and municipal and tahsil places in the district. Their number is larger in Akola, Karanja, Malegaon and Balapur. These shops deal in all kinds of textiles, cotton, woollen, silk, nylon, etc. Shirtings, coatings, son's (both 5 and 9 yards), dhotis, chaddars, shawls, etc., are kept for sale in these shops. With rapidly changing fashions in apparel, ready-made fabrics are in great demand. The changing pattern of fashions in metro-politan cities, such as, Bombay, Pune and Nagpur are adopted in the district immediately with the result that the demand for clothes changes accordingly. The old types of Banarasi shaloos and Paithanis are not popular and have become outdated at present. Their place has been taken by Bangalore silk, Kanjivaram silk and other such fabrics.

The bulk of the cloth is imported by dealers from Bombay, Ahmedabad, Madras, Kanpur, Nagpur, Malegaon and Sholapur. Ready-made clothes are brought from Bombay and Pune whereas hosiery goods are brought from Ludhiana, Dhariwal, Delhi, Jullunder and Kanpur.

In urban centres, such as, Akola, Karanja, Washim, Telhara, Akot and Balapur shops specialising in the sale of hosiery and ready-made clothes are found. In rural places, however, cloth shops sell these goods to augment their total sales. Akola. Karanja, Balapur, washim and Telhara are the more important cloth markets in the district. Akola town itself is the biggest cloth market in the district as well as throughout the Vidarbha region as regards retail and wholesale trade of cloth. The cloth is transported mainly by motor trucks and sometimes over longer distances by railway. The capital investment in this business varies between Rs. 5 lakhs and Rs. 15 lakhs for big shops whereas it varies from Rs. 50,000 to Rs. 3 lakhs in case of small shops. The margin of profits varies between 7 and 13 per cent on an average. Business is brisk during the marriage and festival seasons and slack during the rainy season. Transactions are generally on cash basis but exceptions to this rule are also found.

Medicines and Drugs.—A number of shops of this category have come up with the growing health'consciousness among the people and the availability of medical facilities in recent times. Almost every town has few medical stores and even a big village can claim one. The shops deal in a variety of medicines and drugs, both allopathic and ayurvedic.

The bulk of the medicines are brought from Bombay, Baroda and Calcutta. In many cases the goods are supplied to the shopkeepers by the representatives of the manufacturers. The manufacturers or their agents provide credit facilities, whereas in certain cases the retailers do the business on commission basis. The rates of commission vary from 5 per cent to 20 per cent. The goods are transported by motor trucks as well as by railway, the capital investment in these shops varies between Rs. 1 lakh and Rs. 3 lakhs in case of big shops at places like Akola, whereas the same varies between Rs. 10,000 and Rs. 50,000 for small shops. The net profit for a retailer ranges from 7 to 12 per cent.

Stationery and Cutlery.—With the spread of education and the growth of literary and educational institutions, stationery and cutlery shops have come up in large numbers in the urban area as also in big villages to meet the growing needs of school and college going pupils. Larger stationery and cutlery stores are to be found in Akola, Karanja, Washim, Balapur and Akot. These shops sell toilet articles, bangles, hosiery, pencils, inks, nibs, fountain pens, cutlery and provision goods, presentation articles, etc. Stationery articles are brought from Bombay and sometimes from Ahmedabad, Delhi, Nagpur and Pune, paper mainly from Titaghar and cutlery and provision goods mainly from Bombay. Small shopkeepers generally purchase their requirements at Akola and Karanja from the wholesale traders. The stock-in-trade of these shops varies from Rs. 1,000 to Rs. 10,000. The margin of profit is from 8 to 12 per cent. Business generally records its peak sales at the time the educational institutions reopen, and slackness during the time of vacations. An average stationery shopkeeper is found to employ one or two employees.

Bicycle shops.—Bicycle being a popular and convenient means of transport and also within the reach of the common man is in increasing demand, especially with the growth of industries in all the parts of the district. There are a number of shops selling bicycles in all the municipal and tahsil towns of the district. The shopkeepers have direct connections with the producer companies or their agents in Bombay and Akola as elsewhere from whom purchases are made. The capital investment in these establishments is found to vary between Rs. 2,000 and Rs. 12,000. An average shopkeeper generally employs one or two employees.

Fruits, Vegetables and Flowers.—Most of these shops are small units managed by one or two persons. The perishable nature of their goods and the general absence of cold storage facilities restrict the number and size of these shops. The stock-in-trade of these shops is limited. Fruits and vegetables are brought from the surrounding rural areas and from the distant centres viz., Nagpur, Pune, Dhulia, Jalgaon, Bombay and Nasik. The type of fruits and vegetables sold depends upon the season in which they are available. These generally are mangoes, grapes, papayas, oranges, sweet-limes, figs, bananas and guavas. Trade in vegetables and flowers is also seasonal. Shops of this kind are found mostly in Akola, Karanja and other tahsil places in the district.

Hardware and Building Material.—The spurt in constructional activity during recent times has led to the establishment of a number of shops dealing in hardware and building material. Most of these are mainly located in Akola, Karanja and other important towns in the district. They generally do the business on wholesale basis, and deal in beams, iron sheets, chains, nails, bolts, screws, cast iron articles, buckets, pipes, colour paints, cement, and a number of other articles required for construction works. Of the stock-in-trade, tools are brought from Jul hinder, colour paints, pipes, nails and general hardware from Bombay, chains and nails from Delhi, cast iron from Agra, and beams, buckets and ironsheets from Calcutta and Bombay. A bulk of these merchandies is brought by railways. The bigger shopkeepers make their purchases direct from the manufacturers and the small ones purchase either from the bigger shops in the-town or from wholesalers from Akola. The annual turnover of a retail hardware shop ranges between Rs. 10,000 and Rs. 50,000, while that of a wholesale shop ranges between Rs. 1.70,000 and Rs. 2,00,000. The margin of profits in this business ranges from 10 to 15 per cent. Most of the establishments were found to employ two to live employees.

Leather Goods and Footwear.—There are a number of shops of this kind spread all over the district in towns and big villages. Some of them exclusively deal in leather, while others deal mainly in footwear and leather goods. Footwear includes suitcases, handbags, straps and leather accessories. The big shops in Akola and Karanja towns generally sell products of some well-known footwear companies alongwith other leather goods. Besides, in Akola there are some company's shops selling only their products. Some of the shopkeepers sell goods made by local artisans also. Many a time, artisans are attached to these shops. The value of the stock-in-trade in case of small establishments varies between Rs. 300 and Rs. 800. Big shops generally have stock-in-trade worth between Rs. 1,000 and Rs. 5,000. Business is generally steady throughout the year. These shops generally employ outside labour their number varying from three to five.

Electrical Goods and Appliances.—Trade in electrical goods and appliances is mainly restricted to towns and tahsil places in the district. The electrification of rural areas has led to an increase in the number of general electrical shops. The demand for radio sets, electric fans, electric irons, fluroscent tubes and other accessories has increased considerably in recent times. This has a salient effect on the trade in electrical goods. These shops are mainly found in Akola and Karanja. Their trade is brisk during diwali and during marriage season. The capital investment of the shops in this category varies from Rs. 5,000 to Rs. 20,000 and the margin of profit generally amounts to 10 per cent.

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