Pune: With the ongoing stand-off between India and China, the call for a boycott of Chinese goods in the country is louder than ever. Owing to the boycott call, several mobile stores in the city have pulled down boards and hoardings of Chinese brands like Vivo and Oppo from their stores.

While huge blow ups of Oppo mascot Ollie and billboards dominated the exteriors of mobile stores in the city, Punekars may not see the same sight anymore. Mobile shop owners are proactively pulling down the branding material of Chinese mobile phones to ensure that the same doesn’t hamper their sales.

“The people are very much involved in the call for the boycott of Chinese goods. They are supporting the decision to boycott Chinese goods and obviously, no one wants their business to get affected by promoting the brands. Due to this, many mobile stores have started refraining from continuing with the promotion of Vivo and Oppo,” said a mobile store employee from the city.

A mobile store owner from the city said, “It is up to the shop owner whether to bring down the hoardings and promotions and many are doing so. But, it is up to the consumer whether or not to buy the products. We are still selling these products as we have the stocks. If the demand dies out, we will not order for more inventory.”

Hoardings calling for a boycott of Chinese goods are cropping up across the city and the message is also being spread through social media. People are being urged to refrain from purchasing Chinese goods in order to harm the Chinese economy. Netizens have tweeted things like, “If every Indian decide 2 completely BOYCOTT CHINESE GOODS V have power 2 bring Rogue & Bully nation China2 it’s knees rea#VivoCampusCarnival, BOYCOTT CHINESE GOODS MOBILES also register ur Protest by 1st placing order on sites selling items & then cancelling order #VivoCampusCarnival, As a Hindu I feel my country is more important than Mansarovar Yatra. We should boycott Chinese goods in the interest of our economy, beat those oriental Chinese soldiers coming to Indian land. Boycott Chinese dumped goods, China will bow to you” and more to spread the message of the boycott.

The boycott call has certainly had an impact on Oppo and Vivo so far. Sources said that other Chinese brands like Xiaomi and Lenovo haven’t been impacted yet. They further added that if the stand-off between both the countries continues, the sentiment of boycott will only grow stronger and Chinese products across various segments will be affected.