Church street sees dip in business, some attribute it to eviction of street vendors

Come weekend and all roads led to Church Street till recently. Known for its vibrant atmosphere and teeming with young crowds, especially on Saturdays and Sundays, the street is of late witnessing a noticeable decline in footfall. And in turn, a loss of revenue for establishments too.

For the past one-and-half months, the street is seeing steady fall in business activities, say owners of establishments here. They claim it is to the tune of between 25% and 40%. A few owners of outlets blame the eviction of roadside vendors from the street (on October 5) as one of the key reasons for the drop in footfalls, while others are still trying to figure out the specific reasons.

One indicator of the shrinking footfall is the shutting down of an upscale pub recently. “The rent is high, and given the loss of revenue, running it was not feasible. In the last few months, business has slowed down particularly. The rent for the space is more than ₹20 lakh per month. Hence we will be moving to some other location,” said the owner of the bar, who did not wish to be named..

Krishna Gowda, owner of the iconic bookstore Bookworm on this street, told The Hindu that a 10% dip in business once or twice in a financial year is common. “But this financial year our store has lost 25% of business. The loss is more than expected,” he said, adding that reasons for this were unclear.

C.V. Vinod, owner of Bengaluru Bar, formerly known as Temptation, talking to The Hindu, said every day he is seeing a dip of about ₹15,000 in business compared to about two months ago. Losses are steeper over the weekend. He strongly believes that one important reason for this is the evacuation of street vendors by the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP). “There were more than 150 vendors on the street and this was a major crowd puller. Now with them gone, we too are losing business,” he said. 

It was back in 2017-2018 that there was an effort to refurbish Church Street. It had lost its sheen owing to many people finding other weekend destinations, such as J.P. Nagar and Indiranagar. The Directorate of Urban Land Transport (DULT) decided to lay cobblestones to pedestrianise this road restricting the entry of vehicles during the weekend. As part of this effort, vendors were allowed to do business too, and over time, it acquired the nature of an urban jathre on Saturdays and Sundays.

Vinay Sreenivasa, member, Karnataka Pragathipara Beedi Vyaparigala Sanghatane, argued, “Vendors make people hang out longer, helping other business establishments too. In Jayanagara IV Block, when street vendors were evicted, business establishments at the complex took a beating. The business returned only after vendors came back. This is similar for Church Street,” he argued.

Suhail Yusuf, secretary of The Brigade Shop and Establishments Association, said business was not just hit on Church Street but also Brigade Road. He said usually after festival season businesses see a lull. However, this year, during the festival season too business was dull. Mr. Yusuf believes this cannot be attributed to a single factor. In general, the purchasing capacity of the people has come down, resulting in a loss for business establishments, he said.

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