12 Kolkata: The last extended weekend prior to Durga Puja failed to add cheers to the faces of shopkeepers and hawkers at the city’s shopping hubs amid ‘unexpectedly’ lower turnout of customers.
Though the city was comparatively dry on Monday after incessant spells of downpour till the previous day, there was no significant rise in the footfall of customers at the marketplaces.Traders at Gariahat, New Market and Hatibagan-Shyambazar rued that they were missing out on the large number of buyers visiting the city from the suburbs for puja shopping.
There has also been a drop in footfall of customers from within Kolkata. Protests over the RG Kar incident and rain have dealt a double blow on the pre-puja business this year. Saif Ali Khan, a hawker at Humayun Place near New Market, said, “Frequent showers on the weekend dampened puja business as many people could not step out of their houses. So, we expected that we would witness a rise in customers’ footfall on Monday, which is a holiday for Eid-e-Milad. Though there was no protest or incessant rain today (Monday), we continued languishing for customers”
Shopkeepers at New Market also grappled with pre-puja business losses in the extended weekend. S M Khozaima, a garments trader at this market, said, “My new stocks are lying intact. This time, I have been able to do only 10% of usual pre-puja business.” Another garment seller of the market, Suman Dey, claimed that the daily puja sale at his outlet dropped to Rs 2,000 this year from Rs 10,000 a year back.
A college student from Dum Dum, Sneha Roy, who paid her maiden festive season visit to the New Market on Monday, the usual pre-puja vibe was missing.
The woes of the New Market traders were echoed by their counterparts at Gariahat and Shyambazar-Hatibagan. Debraj Ghosh, a garment seller at Gariahat, said, “In the evening some customers trickled in but that did little to tide over the losses we have already incurred this festive season.” Several traders like Prabhat Das of Hatibagan bemoaned that they would have to wait for Bengal New Year (Poila Baisakh) next year to exhaust the puja stocks. Das had sold barely 10% of his puja merchandise.