Vegetable shopkeeper hires ‘bouncers’ to guard tomatoes

Amid skyrocketing prices of tomatoes across the country, a vegetable shopkeeper in Indian state of Uttar Pradesh has hired bouncers to ‘guard highly-valued diet staple and avoid arguments and violence’.

According to Indian media, tomato prices in various parts of the country have skyrocketed, with the rates touching as high as Rs 250 per kg.

Ajay Fauji — a grocery store owner — has hired two bouncers to stand in front of his vegetable cart to keep customers away from taking tomatoes or arguing over the prices.

#टमाटर 🍅🍅🍅 को Z+ bouncer protection…

Vegetable vendor in Varanasi hires bouncers to protect #Tomatoes 🍅🍅🍅 that he is selling … ?#TomatoPrice #Tomato#TomatoPriceHike pic.twitter.com/IsasL4ZyZ9

— Samim Ahmed Laskar (@Samim267) July 9, 2023

In a video, the bouncers are seeing shooing customers away who are trying to touch the tomatoes. Placards reading (kindly don’t touch the tomatoes) were installed on the shop.

The vegetable shopkeeper said he deployed the bouncers to prevent buyers from getting aggressive while haggling over the prices, Indian media reported.

Talking to a news agency, Fauji said that he hired the bouncers because the tomatoes price is too high. “People are indulging in violence and even looting tomatoes. Since we have tomatoes in the shop, we don’t want any arguments, so we have bouncers here,” he said.

Fauji, who is selling tomatoes at Rs 140-160 per kg, has the bouncers deployed at his cart from 9 am to 5 pm. He refused to reveal how much he hired them for. “No one will provide bouncers free of cost.”