Branded gyms in expensive neighborhoods like Lokhandwala and Khar West, where celebrity gyms are located, require a base investment of anywhere between Rs 2 crore and Rs 3 crore. Purchasing state-of-the-art equipment, hiring experienced trainers, and maintenance of staff cost extra. The end of the first lockdown in April was doing or dies situation for fitness trainers, they had two choices — wait until gyms were allowed to open again or go online. In the question of survival, many gym trainers proffered going online. Mumbai alone has fitness industry worth Rs 82 crores, has buckled under the weight of the lockdown, and with no date of resumption insight, Mumbai’s gyms and fitness centers are unsure how long they can carry on paying crushing rents and keep employees on their rosters.
Fitness trainer Tarun Panchal told Afternoon Voice “Gyms have gone in too much of losses as from past three long months they are kept closed, meanwhile we the trainers opted for online clientele to make some money but still, there were many glitches but somehow managed to earn bread”.
City, where alcohol made a huge profit, the fitness market crumbled. On the other hand, Schools and tuition classes might have gone online but the reopening of bookstores seems to have pleased readers. The sale of books under the children’s section is reported to have increased, even as many bookstores have switched over to online sales, seeing a dip in the number of customers visiting their stores. Earlier not many people would purchase books for their children but since lockdown, there is some market for book stores.
Kitab Khana, a popular bookstore in Fort, has not opened the physical store for visitors yet. It had closed as a precautionary measure a week before the lockdown. While it does not allow in-store browsing, it provides kerb-side delivery as well as home delivery of books. It takes orders on Instagram and WhatsApp, and delivers the next day after payments are made through bank transfer or payment methods such as GooglePay. The experience of browsing through books physically is totally different from online shopping
Granth Book Store in Juhu, on the other hand, does not provide online delivery. Store manager Herin Keniya says they are taking safety precautions, such as using masks, gloves, and thermal scanners. Footfalls have reduced though.
Smaller bookstores though are struggling without business.
Beauty Parlour, Spa and Salon businesses are in a total loss for three months, many of them are shut due to heavy rents and maintenance. Food vendors did reasonably well whereas meat and poultry industry did good business.
Lockdown has taken many jobs, street vendors have gone out of the market, small scale industries suffered without business and self-employed people had their own challenges, but looking at the overall scenario, some business made a huge profit and some just succumbed to circumstances.
