For people in usually busy Chawri Bazar area, life has come to a standstill as customers have stopped coming. All the shops are either closed or some of them are open but there are no buyers. Wholesale traders in other areas of the Walled City are sitting idle.
The busy roads of the areas around North Delhi wholesale hub wore deserted look, with a few people seen discussing demonetisation and how it has caused problems.
"Business has come to stand still as people have no new denomination notes," said Nasirudin, who runs a shop of bathroom fittings.
Radheshayam Singh, a dry fruits seller at Khari Baoli, said he was forced by the circumstances and decided to close his shop for two consecutive days after noticing the drop in the footfall. "Till now I have only sold dry fruits worth of only `700 that is nothing as compared to normal business days. Considering that the situation will come under control and everything would be normal, I have given credit worth of `50 thousand and now I will have to stop it as I cannot exceed my limit of extending credit," he said.
"Sales of dry fruits was reduced earlier after the sudden announcement but it has further dropped to approx `5 to 10 thousand from 50 thousand in a day, now I find no other option except closing the shop for a few days," said Mustakim Ansari, who runs a decorative shop at Chawri Bazar.
Vikas Gupta, a wholesale business man of clothes at Chandni Chowk, told The Pioneer that only the common man is facing the heat.