After the first “very friendly” visit to Mr. Surangapani, I planned to visit Mahabalipuram again. I searched for some more guys who are into renting bikes business and fortunately I bumped into Mr. Sekar. The shop name was “Poornima Store”.
Sekar told me that he has 3 mopeds, both TVS XL super. He used to rent them for Rs.200 a day excluding petrol which is a matter of concern for the customer. He said he earns on an average Rs.100 per day from this business.
Again a very peculiar thing about the shop was that it was dealing with some additional stuff like books and tea. The reason must have been less revenues generating from only renting mopeds. He has both old and new books. He also informed me that this year the volume of tourists has reduced to a very low value because of the Tsunami threat, so he is getting very less business.
He proudly informed me that the name of his shop was published in the book named “India” by ‘lonely planet’ publishers. He showed me the book with a lot of pompousness.
These moped renting guys are having tough time dealing with their business. Huge ups and downs, fluctuating market trends and huge dependence on tourism, make this business lesser and lesser attractive. Hope some government initiatives and a strong information system which can predict trend will help to resolve this uncertainty.
The meets with the bike renting people was really a novel and exciting experience. Got to know their problems and their concerns about current and future trends.
Ayush Gulati
FT13416
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