Shops saw no buyers, hotels took things off the menu

Apart from commuters who suffered as over 5,500 buses stayed away from work on Thursday and Friday with the employees of BMTC going on a strike, business, especially those depending on crowds that came to the major bus stations suffered huge losses.

Out of over 15 shops in the Kempegowda (Majestic) bus station, only four were open. In Shivajinagar, the hotel was closed, as were some of the smaller shops. The Raghavendra Hotel at Majestic, which is usually crowded at most times during the day, was mostly empty on Friday and was even forced to cut down on the variety and quantity of food available at the hotel. The hotel that usually has about 30 varieties of food, on Friday had only about four.

“We had to cut on the varieties, otherwise it would be wasted. Considering that we have not even made 10% of our usual revenue in the last two days, it didn’t seem wise too cook too much. Business is definitely suffering. I hope the strike is called off soon,” said Sudhir, manager of the hotel.

When asked he was expecting buses to actually stay off roads, he said, “We thought a few buses will be off the roads, but we didn’t think it would be like this,” he said.

Kiran S Naik, owner of a shop selling chocolates, juice, snacks, said, “We have made about Rs 300 from the morning, whereas on usual days we make at least Rs 10,000.”