Many tea shops, juice shops, provision stores and restaurants in the city have decided not to stock multinational brands of soft drinks from March 1, following the decision by traders bodies to not sell products of PepsiCo India Limited and Coca-Cola India.
The Chennai Metropolitan Tea Shop Owners’ Association president T. Anandan said that they had advised their 3,000-odd members not to stock such brands since they were not suitable for consumption by children or pregnant mothers.
“It will be a loss to our businesses but we will bear it. Shops can always sell fresh fruit juices, which people will gladly go for,” he said. Shops would also remove name boards provided by these brands, he added.
R. Rajan of Sundaram Juice Stall, off Anna Salai, said that after the pro-jallikattu protests on the Marina not many were opting for such brands.
“The demand has dropped. Perhaps one in a hundred customers ask for these drinks. We are hardly selling two or three bottles a week. There seems to a be a very strong change in the behaviour of consumers. Infact, we do not display the bottles any more since a few irked customers asked us to not stock them. More customers are taking to panneer soda and other local brands,” he said.
G. Rajesh of Rajeshwari Stores in Velachery said in place of selling one case of soft drinks every day, they are now able to sell only one or two bottles a day.
“We used to send soft drink bottles along with monthly provisions to customers’ homes. But now, all of a sudden, people don’t want them. We won’t be stocking these brands after March 1,” he said.
Sources in the Chennai Hotels Association said that they supported the move of the Tamil Nadu Vanigar Sangankalin Peramaipu.
“In the case of many members, we have agreements with these companies and some are trying to get out of them and many have decided not to renew the contracts. Many have said they will stop selling them when the stocks sell out,” he explained.
Gaining momentum
A.M. Vikramaraja of the Peramaipu, said that the movement against soft drinks manufactured by multinational corporations had gained momentum after the jallikattu protests in Chennai in January. “The youth are particularly not interested in consuming these drinks. We are asking our members to switch over to fresh fruit juices or to local brands,” he said.
