BANKING TRADE AND COMMERCE

RETAIL TRADE

Retail shops, in the past, were petty establishments dealing in a few varieties of articles. This was mainly in keeping with the self-sufficient economy with barter transactions. In the circumstances prevailing at that time, weekly bazars were more important and were patronised to a considerable extent. The people, especially in the villages used to Purchase their weekly requirements from the bazars. Itinerant traders, ' such as, pedlars and hawkers used to sell articles like groceries, spices, oils, vegetables, fruits, dry fruits, kerosene, ghee, cloth, etc. The conditions, however, changed with the changing pattern of economic life of the people. The change was more obvious in towns and cities where the population increased more rapidly on account of urbanisation.

During the World War II and the subsequent years, there was rationing of consumers goods in virtue of which the distribution of rice, wheat, jowar, sugar, gul, kerosene and cloth was through the agency of rationing shops. The rationing system was relaxed gradually in 1948 and 1950.

The important categories of retail shops in the district are (1) grocery shops, (2) cloth shops, (3) sweets and eatables shops, (4) grain shops, (5) hardware shops, (6) stationery and cutlery stores, (7) ready-made clothes and hosiery shops, (8) Radio-set and electrical appliances shops, (9) medical stores, (10) utensils shops, (12) dairy shops, etc. There are big retail shops of almost all the above mentioned categories at Wardha, Arvi, Hinganghat, Pulgaon, Sindi, Deoli, Karanja, Samudrapur and Rohna.

Most of the owners of grocery, grains, sweetmeats and dairy shops purchase their stock-in-trade from the wholesale dealers at Wardha, Arvi, Hinganghat and Pulgaon. Some of them obtain certain goods from Nagpur or directly from the agents of bigger companies at Bombay and Nagpur. The travelling agents of many companies, dealing in soaps, tea powders, vegetable oils, agarbattis, spices, etc., come over to the towns and supply the necessary articles to the retailers. Retail traders in cloth, ready-made clothes, hosiery, hardware, radio sets and electrical appliances obtain their wares from the wholesale agents at Nagpur, Amravati and Bombay. Medical store-keepers purchase their stock of goods from Bombay, Baroda, Calcutta, Panvel or from the agents at Nagpur. Many travelling representatives of the manufacturers of medicines supply the requirements of the medical stores in the district.

The rest of the articles of retail trade are obtained by the retailers from the wholesalers at Nagpur, Amravati, Akola, Bombay, Calcutta, etc.

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