Bitter and bewildered, these are the emotions that mark retailers of non-essential goods in the city. The owners have spoken out about total confusion resulting in little clarity and no parity in a report in this paper.

In the second lockdown, the state government had mandated that essential goods could be sold from 7 am to 11 am, after which shutters had to be down. Non-essential stores were not allowed to open at all. E-commerce platforms were allowed to sell essentials. However, that soon became selling non-essentials too online, a piece in this edit space pointed to that, and, retailers’ complaints drew no action.