It is Dhanteras-Diwali time and stores in Calcutta on Thursday are decked out like every year, flaunting “best deals”.

But it hardly had any effect on footfall, which was nowhere close to previous years.

Retailers pinned their hopes on straws of positives, saying demand that had reached the pits during lockdown was on the rise.

Around 3.30pm, a jewellery store in Gariahat had a handful of customers on each of the three floors. An employee held a gold earring close to her right ear for demonstration in front of a prospective buyer.

“June to September saw business coming to an almost standstill. We hardly sold anything. There was a hint of a turnaround during Durga Puja. Things are finally looking hopeful during Dhanteras and Diwali,” the store manager said.

A queue at the billing and delivery counter in the Moulali store of another chain had six buyers. Two months ago, the entire store did not have six potential customers at one go, store executives said.

The volume of jewellery purchased is less than previous years because of a significant rise in the price of gold and silver over the past year, jewellers said.

According to the calendar, Dhanteras started on Thursday night and would last till Friday evening. For retailers, the Dhanteras-Diwali period starts a day or two before Dhanteras and lasts till Diwali, which will be celebrated on Saturday this year.

Dhanteras is usually mad rush at jewellery outlets, followed by consumer durable stores. From the traditional gold lane in Bowbazar to jewellery showrooms on Camac Street to consumer durable stores across the city, the crowd keeps rising by the hour and queues often spill on to streets.

Buying gold on Dhanteras is an age-old tradition. Many people believe it is auspicious to buy some jewellery, even a small token item, during Dhanteras. Bulk buying, especially for the upcoming wedding season, also takes place during Dhanteras because of lucrative deals on offer at every store. Many people believe buying something new, like a TV, fridge or a small iron brings good luck.

“We had expected the festive season to spur growth and help in recovery from the six-month drought. The price of gold has gone up significantly over the past year. But the spending capacity of people has not gone up. There is a renewed faith in gold, though. People still want to buy gold assuming it will be costlier in future,” Soumik Roychoudhury, director of MP Jewellers, said.

At the Dalhousie outlet of a consumer durable retail chain, a group of sales executives looked expectantly at passers-by. Inside the store, dozens of people were busy checking out washing machines, TVs and microwaves.

Another store of a different chain in Gariahat looked slightly busier. But even a casual walk-in customer got enough space and the individual attention of store employees, something unthinkable during this time in previous years.

The chaos, typical of a festive night, was missing, though.

“There is little ras (juice) in Dhanteras this time. But something is better than nothing,” an employee of the Dalhousie store said.

A few customers at an electronic goods shop in BBD Bag. Bishwarup Dutta

When other sectors were crippled because of the pandemic, consumer durables did marginally better, retailers said. They attributed this to more people spending more time at home.

“Android TV sets sold because people had to watch over-the-top media service. Washing machines and dishwashers saw a boom in sales because maids were absent from work,” Pulkit Baid, the director of Great Eastern Retail, said.

“Consumers want to spend on things they would use every day. That is very much visible during Dhanteras and Diwali as well. They want to upgrade from a normal to an Android TV. They want to upgrade to a fully automated washing machine from a semi-automatic one,” he said.

“Apart from gold, there is a promising demand for diamond jewellery, too, especially light and easy to wear items that can be carried off at the workplace,” Suvankar Sen, executive director of Senco Gold, said.

“There is a kind of bullish sentiment that is not limited to the jewellery sector alone. During Durga Puja, people came out and bought a lot of stuff. That sentiment is still there and we hope it continues,” Subir Kumar Sen, director of BC Sen Jewellers, said.