Youngsters brave the shower on Sunday afternoon to shop for fireworks at the deserted Bazi Bazar on the Maidan. Picture by Sanjoy Chattopadhyaya

Manish Agarwal, 35, had promised his wife Priyanka and their two kids a new car this Diwali. On Saturday night, he took them out for dinner on Park Street and confessed that this was a promise he would not be able to keep.

“We were all set to replace our four-year-old Maruti Zen with a Maruti SX4 on Dhanteras. But given the meltdown, the markets and the mood, I decided not to risk it,” admitted the exporter residing off Elgin Road.

Welcome to Diwali in the time of downturn.

With inflation on a high, the Sensex at a record low and the mood really low, pre-Diwali shopping felt the blues.

Nowhere has the boom gone bust with a louder bang than in the luxury electronics goods segment. “September-October contributes 25-26 per cent of our annual sales and if this period is dull, our annual sales targets go for a toss. Things look bleak this year,” says Pulkit Baid, the director of Technocity on Sarat Bose Road, a multi-brand electronics outlet.

Apple, too, is feeling the bite with few takers for its range of tech tools. “The slump is definitely affecting us. Sales are 50 per cent less as compared with last year,” says Sanjay Chordia, the owner of Imagine, Apple’s premium store at City Centre. “Visitors from the Northeast who would come down during this time and go brand shopping are not to be seen and even those working or studying abroad and coming home for the festive season are spending less.”

So Chordia, who was “bullish about opening multiple stores in the east” till last month, is now “having serious second thoughts”.

Caution and compromise have replaced the urge to splurge this festive season. “A Diwali customer with plans to buy a 40-inch LCD television is now going for a 32-inch one, saving around Rs 20,000,” says Pushpesh Baid of Baid Group, the franchisee owner of Sony World on Rashbehari Avenue and Samsung Plaza in New Alipore.

“In laptops, lower-range models like HCL and Compaq in the Rs 24,000-28,000 range have replaced the Vaios and Macs that usually fly off the racks,” adds Baid of Technocity.

If paper wealth has plummeted with the Sensex slump, finance options from banks have also dried up. “With fewer lenders, aspirational products in the consumer durable industry are now beyond reach. We shelved plans to buy an elaborate oven-and-grill and settled for just a microwave instead,” says Pradip Gupta, an IT professional browsing the racks at City Centre.

Budget buy is the way to go. “People haven’t stopped buying but they are spending less,” says Michelle Hooper, the company manager of Prana, a designer lifestyle store, offering highend accessories and apparel. “There is definitely a little bend and the price point has dropped.”

Price points have taken the sheen off gold buying, which at one point looked like surviving the scare. “I am a regular Dhanteras gold buyer but this is the first time I have had jewellers calling me and requesting me to visit their store. They are obviously feeling the pinch,” says Indrani Sharma, a 36-year-old homemaker.

“Fluctuating gold prices are making customers cautious,” admits Bimal Diwan of Diwansons jewellers. For example, he adds, if 20kg of gold was sold last Dhanteras Diwali, this season it’ll drop to 18 kg.

“Cautious but optimistic” is how Premjit Sengupta, the manager (east and south) of Diamond Trading Company (DTC) describes the spend in the run-up to Diwali. “Last year growth was around 27 per cent. This year it is muted at 15 per cent.”

Bottomline: muted is the buy buy mood this Diwali.