Vijaya Dashami has never been so dull in the past for sweet shops in Calcutta.

Almost all shops witnessed a drop of nearly 40 per cent in demand for sweets, between Monday and Tuesday, compared to previous years — something that industry veterans termed “unprecedented”.

Rasogolla, sandesh and other varieties didn’t fly off the shelves like previous years, forcing several sweet shops across Calcutta to cut down on production in order to prevent wastage.

“The drop in sales for Dashami was almost 60 per cent,” Dhiman Das, executive director of KC Das, said. “It is unbelievable. The customer count was so low that we could have closed our shop by 6pm. It is just that we chose to keep it open for several hours more. It’s unprecedented.”

The Vijaya Dashami ritual usually involves visits to family members, relatives or others with sweet packets. Greetings end with an exchange of sweets, an event that sweet shops across Calcutta wait to cash in on.

On days of Durga Puja, visits to any gatherings, big or small, would usually have guests turning up with sweet packets, at times from some of the most reputed names in the business.

There has been a break from tradition this year, according to several sweet shop owners. People didn’t step out during Durga Puja and visits to families and friends were mostly without sweet packets.

People have cut down on visits. And even if they did, many were unsure if carrying food would be a welcome gesture during the pandemic.

The result was inevitable.

Across Calcutta a large majority of around 8,500 sweet shop owners who had pinned their hopes on Durga Puja for revival of sales suffered a blow.

“The overall drop in sale from Saptami has been around 50 per cent. We had to scale down our production… there is no point. The number of customers has dwindled and it has been very bad for most of us,” Partha Nandy of Girish Chandra Dey and Nakur Chandra Nandy in Hedua said.

By Navami many shop owners had realised that this Vijaya Dashami won’t be like other years.

“Many shops still managed some sales on Monday. From Tuesday, it has gone back to the lean phase. We don’t know when sales will pick up,” Jagannath Ghosh, the secretary of the West Bengal Sweetmeat Shop Owners Association, said.

Some like Chittaranjan in Sovabazar and Balaram Mullick and Radharaman Mullick of Bhowanipore said their tie-ups with online delivery platforms had been a saviour.

“Customer count has been low. But we have not been hit, thanks to the online platforms,” Subhajit Ghosh of Banchharam said.

Even the volume of corporate orders has gone down this year because of an increasing number of people shying away from offering sweet packets, several sweet shop owners said.

Even politicians and others who would go for bulk purchases during Vijaya Dashami have not been keen on continuing with the tradition of gifting sweet packets this year. Some, though, have opted for online delivery platforms but that number is “not too encouraging”, they said.