A glitzy shopping mall. A Telegraph picture

Dec. 17: It’s a You’ve Got Mail kind of story — without any of the romance.

The war between the little Shop Around the Corner and retail giant Fox Books in New York that formed the backdrop of the 1998 Hollywood blockbuster has reached Silchar almost a decade later and shows no signs of a romantic resolution.

Huge and glitzy, with the lure of astronomical discounts — the shopping mall — that once defined the way metros shopped, is slowly becoming a fad in this Cachar headquarters town.

What it does to consumerism in the context of globalisation is a question that economists would love to ponder on at seminars.

But for thousands of shopkeepers in Silchar, the more pressing question is whether their little shops around the corner will be able to put food on the table for much longer.

When it is a toss up between buying their daily ware from crammed, untidy little shacks and surveying a range of products on well-designed racks, for the average middle-class consumer in Silchar, the choice is obvious.

The war does not end with the difference in logistics and infrastructure. Price is what is primarily luring buyers away from the neighbourhood shops.

Whether it is the daily grocery or clothes, the malls offer discounts that are difficult to resist.

After brushing aside fears of losing loyal customers for a while, the Central Silchar Traders’ Association has finally decided to fire its first salvo against a leading departmental store that has been eating into the profit margin.

The association, whose members deal mostly in clothes, household goods, grocery and toys, has been resenting the clout of the retail shark.

At a recent meeting of the association, Ashit Dutta, a leading businessman in Silchar, said these small traders do not have the advantage of dumping a huge stock and then selling the goods off quickly by pricing them a little lower than the prevailing market rate.

Besides, the retail kings also hold on to stocks and sell them when they can be priced to their advantage.

“Moreover, the new shopping mall is so glitzy with its spanking new marble floors, lighting and huge range of products that it has been able to attract customers from various income brackets,” said Nandadulal Saha, a leading retailer in Silchar.

Aggressive marketing also ensures that consumers are drawn to the retail Mecca.

The Central Silchar Traders’ Association has now appealed to the district administration and the political parties to think up schemes that will at least allow them to stay afloat.

Nothing seems to be working in their favour at the moment — neither the “goodwill” they built painstakingly over the years, nor the camaraderie with customers.