Kolkata: With three weeks left for Sasthi, major shopping hubs in the city—Gariahat, Hatibagan, and New Market—witnessed a crowd build-up on Saturday evening. However, sales did not match the footfall surge, with traders and hawkers reporting a 30% to 50% dip in sales compared to this time last year.
The reasons cited were multifold. While the schedule of puja in late Sept meant that the monsoon was still underway and rains had been a dampener for shoppers, traders also stated that the puja spirit was yet to pick up as shopping generally gains momentum after Vishwakarma Puja. They also cited a shift to online shopping as another factor for the sales slide.
Rathin Biswas, an employee of a saree shop, Dhakeswari Bastralaya, at Gariahat, said, "This time our puja sales are down by 40% compared with last year.
The puja is much earlier this year and the monsoon is still prevalent. The rain has kept the shoppers' rush at bay. Last time our shop was teeming with people, but this time we are looking for them. Some are entering, bargaining, and pushing off without making any purchase.
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Hawkers at Gariahat also fret over the decline in shoppers' rush even as the festival is just three weeks away. Suman Saha, a garment hawker, attributed the slump in sales to the e-commerce boom.
"Be it clothes, cosmetics, jewellery, or other items, customers are buying major stuff online these days. They are coming to us for buying leftovers. This year offline puja sales in our market are significantly down and we don't know what to do with the stocks we have stashed in anticipation of festive demand.
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The same picture was seen at the city's other shopping districts like New Market and Hatibagan too. Bertram Street and Humayun Place were packed with crowds on Saturday, but a scene in contrast was seen inside New Market where the crowd was sparse, very unlikely in the season of festive shopping.
Sanjit Kumar Saha, one of the owners of the 70-year-old Bikrampur Bastralaya at Hatibagan, said, "Compared to last year around this time, this year the sale is around 20% less. One of the reasons, we feel, is that customers are preferring online shopping platforms instead of visiting traditional shops in order to avoid crowds."
Ratan Saha, who owns the 80-year-old Sri Durga Bastralaya, said, "The puja business has not picked up yet.
Generally, buyers come to our shop from Aug-end to buy different types of sarees, but this time, it is very less. Around 50% less sale is happening this time compared to last year's puja market."
An elderly hawker, Biswanath Mondal, who sells kids' garments on the Hatibagan footpath, said, "The sale of kids' garments has not picked up yet, which is alarming. The purchasing power of middle and lower-middle-class people seems to have reduced and a section of people prefer to visit the shopping malls that have come up here, rather than buying from us."
Raju Fatik, a hawker who sells jewellery on the footpath, said that he stocked the latest collections of jewellery but there is hardly any customer to buy them.