KARACHI, Sept 13: A prominently displayed banner across the shop’s façade announces: “Ramzan package — As ordered by the president and the prime minister, the Utility Stores offer the public surprising price cuts effective from Sept 10, 2007, to greet the holy month of Ramzan.” Ten items to be sold at reduced rates are mentioned in particular.

But none of them are available at the Utility Store opened recently at Korangi Crossing.

People keep coming to inquire about the truckloads of atta and sugar that are purportedly on their way. The shop attendant keeps shaking his head. The disappointed customers leave with drawn faces and return to ask the same question again.

When the desperate people become assertive, the shopkeeper asks them to help him by ringing up the Utility Store offices to complain about the lack of supplies at this outlet. He offers customers two telephone numbers for the regional office.

When Dawn asks why he does not simply call himself, he admits that he has already done so. “They tell us to send our own truck to pick up the supply. But if we spend Rs2,000 on the truck fare, what will we earn for ourselves from the exercise?”

At the Utility Store off Sunset Boulevard near Gizri, a great crowd of people is queued up in front of a gate marked ‘Atta and sugar point.’ Nearby, bags of atta are being unloaded from a truck and are being stacked inside. Many other people are milling about and a group peers through the bars of another shuttered gate. Not too far, however, some men and women wait at the corner, looking relaxed since they have managed to cart out sugar, ghee and other rations.

They say they have come from Qayyumabad, about three kilometres away, and are now looking for a taxi to take their loads home.

At noon, I ring up the regional head office’s telephone number given to me by the shopkeeper at the Korangi Crossing Utility Store. The man who answers says he’s a clerk and would prefer my inquiries to be answered by his officer, who is currently unavailable. He notes my telephone number and assures me that Mr Mohammed Riaz will return my call with the information I need. After waiting some hours, when I dial the same numbers in the afternoon, there is no response. Possibly, the staff has gone home.

The items most in demand at the Utility Stores include atta, ghee and sugar. An attractive concession is offered on these items: atta at at Rs120 per 10kg bag, versus Rs170 in the open market; sugar, though of a lower quality, is at Rs25 a kilo at the stores and at Rs30 in the market. According to the store management, other items are being sold at a 5 to 10 per cent discount.

Yet such concessions are also available from shops offering wholesale rates.

The Utility Stores hold much attraction for lower-income people who suffer the most from poverty and price-hikes. But these stores lose their utility if customers cannot get the items they need despite going through the hassle and shopping far from their homes.

A man from Qayyumabad said that until a couple of years ago, trucks from the Utility Stores would visit their localities twice a week during Ramzan to deliver atta and sugar to queuing customers.