Nov 9, 2012

It’s ‘sweet’ switchover this Diwali

ALLAHABAD: This Diwali the city is switching over to dry fruits and chocolates instead of sweets. In a drift from the tradition of offering and exchanging sweets to friends and guests, people are showing preference for dry fruits and chocolates despite the soaring prices of dry fruits. The sale of dry-fruits has, in fact, gone up by 30% compared to previous years.

The companies too are making most the changing trend and have come up with attractive gift hampers of chocolates and dry fruits. One of the reasons behind this new trend is growing cases of adulteration in sweets and milk, especially during festivals.

Traders, however, claim that some customers are opting for packed sweets like 'kaju katri' and 'rasgulla' from branded companies.

Nitin Mehrotra, a shopkeeper, said: "Youngsters are preferring dry fruits and chocolates over sweet boxes". "I used to distribute sweets made out of maawa among families and friends till two years back. But after growing incidents of adulterated sweets, I have started giving dry fruits and chocolates" said Rohit Shukla, an entrepreneur.

Dhananjay Singh, an entrepreneur, said, "Dry fruits and chocolates are best options available in markets. We cannot risk anyone's health on such a happy occasion." He added that the trend is now shifting from sweets to dry fruits as it is more convenient and also good for health. Even cooperates and businessmen too gift their employees dry fruits and cookies. On other hand, there is a section of people which believes in sticking to the tradition of distributing sweets. Many sweet-meat shops in the city are also offering homemade sweets.

A trader in Civil Lines said, "Undoubtedly, people have started gifting dry fruits more but the famous sweets shops too are doing brisk business. Scared of adulteration people now buy sweets from only famous and trusted shops."

No comments:

Post a Comment