Unlike banks and post offices, the lines outside meat, fish and egg stores in the city remained unusually thin all through Thursday with some retailers reporting a steep drop of 50 per cent to 60 per cent in their daily sales. “We barely sold anything despite us getting limited stock from the wholesale market. The few regulars who know that we have a card swipe machine at our shop are the only ones who turned up,” said Syed Ruknuddin of Eagle Fisheries located near Clock Tower, Secunderabad. As against their usual buy of 100 kg, Ruknuddin bought just about 25 kg on Thursday. In Ameerpet too, fish retailers faced a similar crisis. Satyanarayana, a popular dealer here, said, “Our total sales dropped by 70 per cent. We were left cash-strapped because we could not exchange Wednesday’s collection of 1 lakh, entirely in 500 and 1,000 denominations.” Bogged down by the poor sales, some retailers eventually started accepting Rs 500 notes to avoid their perishable stocks from rotting. “We had no choice because we had brought huge supplies which we would have to dump in the cold storage if not sold,” said Nanda Kishore of Anand’s Live Fish centre in Gachibowli. Chicken and meat outlets also found few customers. Meat outlets in the city such Shama Chicken Market in Somajiguda were hit hard.”We have no idea when things will get regularised and we can’t keep waiting till then. Hence, we are accepting all currency notes, albeit in limited numbers,” said Md Rizwan, a meat store owner from Mehdipatnam. Chains like Spar and Reliance Fresh saw more customers come in, courtesy swipe machines. “Usually, I buy from a seller in Ameerpet. But because I have a limited number of 100 notes, I decided to shop from Spar,” said Sujata Sarkar, Panjagutta resident.
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