Kolkata: Musrooming of budget-friendly departmental stores across the city has impacted sales of traders and hawkers at traditional shopping hubs. With less than a week to go for Mahalaya, stores like Citi Mart, Apna Bazar, Bazar Kolkata and Zudio are drawing high footfall.
But the crowd is conspicuously less at Gariahat, Hatibagan and New Market that are usually overrun by shoppers around this time of the year.
Shop-owners at these shopping hubs expressed concern over lower-than-expected sales. Despite extending business hours and preparing for the annual shopping rush, many shop-owners said footfalls were tepid this year.
On Saturday, traders and hawkers at these markets lamented that their stocks still waited to be exhausted since visitors hardly bought anything; rather, they mostly went for window shopping.
Many markets witnessed a slight increase in footfalls on Saturday, but it was not close to what it would be in previous years.
Suman Saha, a hawker at Gariahat, said, "We had more shoppers on Saturday compared with last week, but that did not push up the volume of sales. This time, people seem to have slashed their budget for Puja shopping. They are buying low-budget items, and some are going away after asking prices."
Trader Rajesh Jana, whose store sells ethnic wear, had no clue about how many days it would take for his new stocks to be sold.
"So many people came today to the Gariahat market, but they are hardly buying anything," he said.
The same picture was found at Hatibagan as well. Prasenjit Das, a hawker, said, "Compared with last week, the footfall is more, but sales is still low. People are looking for cheaper items. The new retail stores that are selling clothes and other items at cheap rates are also offering discounts."
The situation was the same in New Market. "The response has been lukewarm," said Subhankar Dey, who runs a garments shop in SS Hogg Market.
"We're open till 9.30 pm, but the sales have not matched our expectations."
"Sales are down by almost 50% compared to last year," said Afroz Khan, a retailer at Simpark Mall. "It's not just us — street hawkers are also struggling." Hawkers along Lindsay Street echoed similar sentiments. "Footfall has dropped. It seems people are either shopping online or preferring malls," said Amir Ali, a hawker on Lindsay Street.