Seeing gold price rate touching 30K mark on Thursday, Debashish Mondal’s heart skipped a beat. But that did not stop his wife Somdutta from buying another pair of gold earrings in the run-up to Diwali. Although inflation is taking a toll on family’s overall budget, people are still eagerly purchasing the yellow metal in the city.
Dhanteras was earlier more popular among the non-Bengali community but now even Bengalis are seen thronging the gold showrooms to use this opportunity to buy wedding jewellery for their daughters. Almost all shops are giving attractive offers and discounts on purchase of gold and diamond.
The vice-president (marketing) of P.C. Chandra Jewellers, Anil Jain, said, “The rising gold price must not deter customers. The only difference we have seen is that instead of going for heavy jewellery the buyers are restricting themselves to light-weight gold collection.”
The situation is no different in the southern part of the city. To cope with the customers’ rush, some jewellery stores have even promised to remain open till midnight. “The response from people is tremendous. After coming to the city only two months ago, the rush to buy gold in our showroom has been very encouraging. To avoid the Dhanteras day crowd, buyers are coming early to get what they want at a reasonable rate,” customer relations officer of Tribhovandas Bhimji Zaveri, Subir Bhattacharya, said.
Keeping pace with this trend, the craze for gold is likely to receive a boost in the coming days as one cannot deny the cultural significance of this yellow metal. According to the store manager of Senco Gold, Manas Das, “Whether its Dhanteras or any other festival, the tradition of buying gold will never stop. People’s quest for gold would continue no matter how worse the economy gets.”