Fancy Bazaar Wears a Deserted Look Ahead of Durga Puja

With the festive fervour of Durga Puja, the market gets flooded with different varieties of new trends of all sorts and be it Fancy Bazaar or shopping malls the customers rushed to grab their choice before the stock gets over.

But with the growing numbers of online shopping portal with various products available from household products to clothes to accessories it has become easier for the people for shopping rather than to go to market by spending valuable time.

The Fancy Bazaar marketwhich was fully crowded during the festivals a few years back seems to have adeserted look this year with the changing trend of shopping online. "The markethas fallen down this year as the trend of online shopping has increased. Earlier,people only opted for fancy bazaar for shopping and we have fixed customersfrom across the state who come for shopping during the festivals like Bihu,Durga Puja or Eid but now-a-days we have lost such customers as they don't takethe pain to come all the way to Guwahati for shopping," said Manoj Das who ownsa garment shop in Fancy Bazaar.

Das said that this year the business is not good unlike the other years and years after years it is decreasing. "Online shopping is reliable but the quality of the products can't be judged which can be done in the market. People look for quality products but it happens that when a product is ordered online or on television sometimes the products are found defective which can't even be returned. Earlier, the market was flooded with people 15-20 days ahead of Durga puja but this year we only have limited customers," said Das.

Another shopkeeper Mukesh said that they don't even get time to respond to two customers at a time but this time they have to call customers from the road. "We are really surprised that the business has fallen down so much that we are not getting even our regular customers. Till last year we have 30-40 permanent customers who used to come only for the salwar suits and Babu Bazaar which was famous for its salwar suits and sarees have now had a deserted look as customers go online shopping," said Mukesh.

A garment wholesaler Deepak Roy said, "This year the market is not good and not even half of the products are sold. If we sell 200 pieces in a day, this year not even 30 pieces are sold. Earlier, the market starts three months before but this time we are in a heavy loss as the customers go shopping in malls or online shopping."

Roy said that there are a section of people who come to fancy bazaar as they cannot afford to go to shopping malls or online shopping in high range, but fancy bazaar is such a market where people will get products available in all price range which can be affordable by all sections of people.

Tina Medhi, a customer said, "My choice is fancy bazaar as all kinds of materials are available in the market at a reasonable price. The product which we get at a low price here is available in double the price in shopping malls. People go to shopping malls who have extra earnings but we run under a particular budget and therefore fancy bazaar is perfect for people like us who only depend on the salary."

This year it has also been seen that the shopping malls have also taken the market as the city is filled with elite class of people who opted to go to shopping malls rather than Fancy Bazaar as the market remains crowded most of the time. The stalls in footpath are mostly crowded rather than in the main shops and the shopkeepers have to face heavy losses.