Ice vendors in twin cities brace for long winter

Lament rampant inflation as they seek alternative employment in the off-season

ISLAMABAD:

As the temperature starts to drop, roadside ice vendors in the twin cities of Islamabad and Rawalpindi, who allowed the public to cool off during the hot summer months, have started searching for alternative sources of revenue to survive the long winter months.

While temperatures have already plummeted to the low 10s, November is considered to be the month where winter commences in earnest.

Ice vendors, who are in high demand during the hot summer months, have started to see the business at their stores dwindle and have started exploring alternate sources of income.

Young Zia Bukhari, who sells ice near the Tanga Stand on Kashmir Road, told The Express Tribune that he was launched into the business when he was just 15-years-old. However, the changing seasons and shift in consumer trends is something which he is accustomed to.

“We face this situation every year,” Bukhari says with casual nonchalance.

“When the demand for ice falls significantly during winters, and I seek work as a truck loader,” he said, adding that he has to keep working to provide for his family.

The ice vendor said that like everything else, rampant inflation has also impacted his business. He recalled that an ice slab used to cost just Rs200 from an ice factory located in the Mohan Pura area when he entered the business over a decade ago. But now, it costs more than twice as much and they have to shell out a whopping Rs500 for a single slab.

“The delivery vehicles drop off the ice at around 8am every morning and I sell around five to six slabs a day”.

Describing his customer base, Bukhari said that most of them are shopkeepers from the vicinity who use the ice to cool the water in their drinking water tanks. Others include fresh juice and drinks vendors.

The vendor criticised the government for failing to control inflation, owing to which it had become nearly impossible for vendors like him to make both ends meet.

Staring at the prospect of a longer than usual winter owing to the added economic pressures, Bukhari said that he has four daughters and that he wanted to educate them but he has been unable to muster sufficient savings to make that possible.

However, he expressed his determination to fulfil the dream of educating his daughters somehow.

 

Published in The Express Tribune, October 26^th, 2020.