The shopaholics always get a good deal of buying handloom and handicraft materials at the annual fairs put up at different shopping hubs, but this time the fair organised at Bhopal Haat was unable to catch the attention of the buyers resulting in a cold response.
The shopaholics of the city are not getting fascinated with the handloom and handicraft fair being put up at Bhopal Haat. The Fuhar Mela 2014 that began here from Saturday features handloom and handicraft materials from across the country. This time, unlike other years, the stalls seemed empty; shopkeepers were sitting idle and just two or four customers could be spotted shop at the fair.
The Pioneer had talked to some of the buyers just to check-out the reason behind such a cold response at the fair. One of the regular buyers at Bhopal Haat, Shruti Gupta says, “Well, I am a regular buyer at Bhopal Haat and each time I find something different here, but it is really sad that this time I could find no varieties. May it be the clothing, bags or jewellery, everything seems to be the same as last year.”
While expressing a similar discontent, another buyer Ragini says, “I could shop nothing this time from the fair as I am very disappointed with the displays. Nothing this time matches with my taste. I have only bought a bracelet, that's all.” Another buyer, C Rao says, “I usually come with my wife to shop at Bhopal Haat every time, but this year we could find nothing, no variety and no interesting stuff to buy.”
In-charge of the fair Dinesh Tiwari said, “We organise such fairs not just for the people to enjoy shopping but also to have a look at handloom materials from various States. Moreover, such fairs provide a platform to the Self Help Groups (SHGs) working in different parts of the country. May be because of changing weather conditions people are not interested in shopping.”
Notably, the fair showcases a huge variety of decorative items, rugs, carpets, imitation jewellery, dress materials, ladies hand-bags, metal crafts, bamboo furniture and sculptures of jute and metal. This apart, the mela also sports a major collection from Madhya Pradesh such as a variety of Chanderi dress material, sarees, Dabu print, terracotta, Bagh print and jute and leather items like purses and hand bags. The fair has got artisans from Tikamgargh, Neemuch, Dhar, Khandwa, Satna and Ashok Nagar.
It has become really difficult for the vendors to catch an eye of the buyers as according to the customers the stalls have displayed the similar varieties and no new trends could be seen at the fair. But, still vendors are hopeful that their sale may increase during the weekends. The fair would conclude on August 27.