Tourists shop at Hong Kong market. Picture by Avijit Sarkar

Siliguri, May 7: From a trade hub for exclusive “phoren goods” — be it French cologne or Japanese electronic goods — to a tourist destination for souvenir hunters, Siliguri’s Hong Kong market has fallen from grace.

Floating crowds of curious tourists still mill around the shops, inspecting dolls from China and Feng Shui props that promise good fortune. But buyers are few and far between.

Even they, shopkeepers say, have changed from a clientele ready to pay a few rupees more for the pricey Sony Handicam and Nikon cameras, to the present bunch, which haggles to buy for a few rupees less.

The blowing winds of change brought by liberalisation policies introduced by the Narasimha Rao government in the early nineties, has forced shopkeepers to adapt anew in a hurry. The electronic items that emerged from under layers of shoddy newspaper wrappings are all a pleasant memory.

“The once-exclusive clientele which placed orders for imported goods that only surfaced in the grey market, have swapped venues from the cluttered shops in the labyrinthine lanes to the dazzling authorised showrooms that have mushroom all over,” a shopkeeper, who did not want to be named. “The market is alive, but the spirit dead.”

“More people visit the market because they have heard so much about it. They buy umbrellas, fancy slippers, bags or other gift items as proof of their visit to the Hong Kong market. That too, only if they have any money left,” he added.

Profits have plunged in the last decade. Most shopkeepers say they are forced to sell off goods for as less as two per cent profit to keep the business rolling.

“At least, this year, the sales have picked up. But even the best of years cannot compare to the golden period that ended around a decade ago,” said a member of the Bidhan Market Cut Piece Byabsayee Samity, under which the Hong Kong market is registered.

There are, however, certain goods that retain their dedicated band of customers. “Some items like Belgian carpets, exclusive dinner sets and Italian cutglass, which are not available in the open market, are still in demand. It would be wrong to say that the market has lost its sheen altogether,” a shopkeeper said. “We might be down, but not out.”

But with the world turning into a “global village”the uphill battle for the market to hold on to its “niche” has just begun.