SHILLONG: Vegetable and meat markets continued to remain flat the day before Christmas in the city with petty traders and vendors the worst hit even as sales improved in upmarket Police Bazar with last-minute shoppers braving the traffic and congestion to pick up goodies for the celebrations.
“The prices have remained more or less the same than normal but I have had just one customer since morning. This Christmas has been my worst so far,” rued F. Ali, a chicken seller at the municipal market at Laitumukhrah on Saturday afternoon.
The scene at the market located at the heart of the town and otherwise crowded, was close to being desolate, unlike the pre-Christmas days of the past.
The situation in the evening was not too different at the Bara Bazar chicken market.
“I expected sales to pick up today after an ordinary past couple of days, but that was not to be. The market is down from last year,” said a lady vendor selling local chicken, as she was about to wind up around 7.30 pm on Saturday.
At her grocery store a few steps from Ali’s shop in the Laitumkhrah municipal market, young Shahana Begum was whiling away her time doing literally nothing. Not that she had to.
“The onion prices have come down from Rs 70 to Rs 60 and the potato prices range from Rs 15 to Rs 20.
But I am still waiting for my first customer,” she told this correspondent, a tad embarrassed as well.
Just outside the municipal market, Emanuel Nongkseh had a long wait inside his makeshift shop (Omni van) till he got his first customer who bought a plain cake in the afternoon. “The sales of cakes have been pretty average compared to last Christmas. I have as many as 12 types of cakes and nine fresh cream items, including black forest, butter scotch, strawberry and pineapple,” he says.
There were hardly three or four people at R.B. Enterprise, a landmark outlet known for its bakery items at Laitumkhrah in the afternoon. “The demand for both fancy and plain cakes has been very low compared to the past few years,” said M. Haque, a salesman.
In contrast though, a number of cake outlets offering custom-made services have emerged over the past four-five years in the upmarket locality and sales have been relatively brisk unlike the older ones.
“I couldn’t get my chocolate cake as they were sold out by the afternoon. I came here because I like the variety here,” rued a lady customer at Little Chef in Laitumkhrah.
Traffic snarls were noticed in several localities, but Police Bazar, the commercial hub of the city, outscored all. The traffic police had a busier than usual evening in and around the central marketplace as about three-four rows of vehicles were seen stranded or moving at a very slow pace in certain points.
“I got down from the city bus and chose to walk as the vehicle was stuck for several minutes,” said a passenger, who rushed to buy some decorative articles for the occasion.
The shops, both inside and outside, were doing brisk business in Police Bazar, lit up with decorative lights and Christmas trees, even as there was a semblance of austerity in the other localities.
