Ritchie Street is the city’s electronics hub.
From nuts and bolts to motherboards and high-end gaming chips, everything is available in a bunch of cluttered shops along four or five streets off the busy Anna Salai.
For a few years now, however, the biggest threat to business here has been e-commerce.
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Thousands of electronics and computer shops, huddled in pigeon-hole-like spaces, have made the street the electronics capital of the city, if not the State.
Ritchie Street is a beehive of activity throughout the day with people unmindful of the chaotic narrow streets crowding these shops.
M.C. Jain, proprietor of Mahavir Computer Spares and one of the first entrepreneurs to start a computer shop on the street in the 90s, says the area, which went by the name of Radio Market back then, was known for selling electronic spare parts of all kinds.
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Over the years, the area has evolved into a place for assembled and branded computers, and now, smartphones, which have emerged as the hottest-selling products, sold cheaper than at market rates.
Though Ritchie Street has become a household name for electronics and even found a place on the world map, it is a combination of Narasingapuram Street, Wallers Street, Meeran Sahib Street, Mohammed Hussain Sahib Street and Guruappa Road that makes up the electronics centre.
From the business point of view, shopkeepers say they have been hit by online commerce.
It has not helped that the street has earned notoriety for treating customers poorly, not providing warranty for even branded products and passing off unbranded products as branded items.
On the decline
E. Kumar, proprietor of N.K. Computers, presenting the state of business on the street, says business is not as rosy as it was in the 90s and 2000s, when computers and accessories were in great demand. The advent of online retailers, with their huge discounts and better customer care, has eaten into the already-shrinking market share, he says.
Sunil Hasija, secretary, All India Radio and Electronics Association (AIREA), says the association, with more than 2,000 members, has been pitching for creating a conducive environment for customers by requesting the State government to improve the street by providing adequate toilet facilities, regulating traffic and removing hawkers.