From March last year, students have been unable to attend classes in-person at university campuses due to the closure of educational institutions, leaving them with a lot more free time.
And with this sudden abundance of free time, some students have decided to go into business for themselves. For these students retail seems to be the safer and cheaper method of turning a profit.
Take Mehedi Hasan Rony, for example, who is a student of chemistry at Jahangirnagar University.
But as he no longer has to go to the university, he is also moonlighting as a retail mango vendor.
“Trading mangoes from the eve of the lockdown was a wise decision for me. In 2020, I sold 343 maunds, and due to higher mango yields this year, my sales volume now stands at 483 maunds,” he said.
“Last year, I sold each maund of mango at Tk2,200 to Tk2,400.Each maund cost me between Tk1,600 and Tk1,800. This year, I sold each maund at Tk2,100 to Tk2,200, whereas my costs were between Tk1,400 and Tk1,500.”
Similarly, Nafisa Zahid Sejuti, a student at the Department of International Relations at Jahangirnagar University, is now a retail entrepreneur selling sarees.
“Withdrawing Tk10,000 from my account, I started this journey in September last year. I purchased Katan saree from wholesalers in Tangail with the help of a friend,” she explained.
Shesold each saree at Tk1,450 toTk1,500.Her costs, including transportation, ranged between Tk1,100 and Tk1,120.
From December 2020 to June 2021, she made more than Tk40,000 from this business.
Meanwhile, students living in the districts around the Sundarbans, such as Bagerhat, Khulna, and Satkhira, have picked pure honey for business.
Arafat Hossain, a resident of Dacope upazila of Khulna district and a student of the Bangla Department at Chittagong University, said: "I am proud to be a retailer; there is no other business as lucrative as selling honey.
“Last year I invested Tk5,500 in December to start this business. My profit till July this year stood at Tk32,000. Since my home is very close to the Sundarbans, there are many honey wholesalers from whom I can stockpile a good amount of the product,” he added.
Since the outbreak of the coronavirus, retailing has received better response than wholesale among university students.
Let us make it clear with another example.
Ziaul Haque Jewel, a wholesaler and retailer at the same time and also a student of philosophy at Jahangirnagar University made profits of only Tk180 per maund after selling 1,500 maunds of mango at a wholesale price to the retailers.
He then sold about 800 maunds at a retail price to the consumers where the profit was between Tk450 and 500 for each maund.
"I have always made profits from the wholesale business, but I am at more risk this time because of the coronavirus," Jewel added.
Due to the high yield of mangoes in the Rajshahi division, retailers from several districts visit the place every year to purchase mangoes.
But due to a lack of proper transportation during the lockdowns, only a few buyers could visit the place this year.
The retailers, who used to collect mangoes from Jewel every year, collected the fruit from the surrounding districts this year.
Though he supplied mango to the retailers in different regions through various courier services for high transportation costs, the services were not satisfactory either, Jewel said.
But when he made a post on a Facebook group frequented by students of his university, he started getting a lot of orders from teachers, alumni, and current students.
Moreover, he invested very little capital.
As Covid-19 is likely to stick around for much longer, the government may declare another lockdown any time.
For wholesale businesses, this could be a death sentence as transporting goods becomes very difficult.
Students are having a hard time penetrating the job market and are not willing to work as day labourers. For these people, retail could be a very good alternative.
The author is working as district coordinator and project planner of Youth Net in Khulna. He is a student of international relations at Jahangirnagar University and can be reached at [email protected]
