Hyderabad: The state excise department ordered closure of all liquor shops from 6 pm on Saturday ahead of Lok Sabha elections on Monday. The wine shops and pubs will resume business after 6 pm on Monday when elections are over and the silence period ends.
Guzzlers were seen crowding wine shops to stock up on their favourite drink for the next day. Unusual rush was spotted from Friday evening onwards in cities’ wine stores. Saturday evening will be a dry evening. Pub goers celebrated the week end on Saturday itself. Several pubs were housefull.
This weekend will be a long weekend as Monday is declared as holiday for many organisations. Liquor consumption during the weekend will be on a peak, especially in the cosmopolitan Hyderabad where liquor is high.
Customers found stocks depleting fast on Friday evening itself. A customer at a hyper mart said, “Around 8 pm on Friday, I reached the wine shop, I found most of the regular brands were out of stock. There were only high end foregn brands or unpopular brands available.”
A wine shop owners explained, “The usual weekend sale is around Rs 10 lakh, but it has crossed Rs 20 lakh already. This was the same with most of the wine shops. Since customers came as a stampede on Friday and Saturday, we ran out of popular regular brands.” he said.
Pubs looking at the dry situation called for early celebrations. Many of them organised early weekend parties on Friday. “Though we serve the non-alcoholic beverages and food, the house is full when liquor is served. The pub was full house on Friday,” a pub official said.
