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NO TAKERS: Shop owners leave the premises yesterday.  PIC/DATTA KUMBHAR

This time last year the Oberoi Shopping Arcade would have been swarming with customers doing their holiday shopping. However, though vendors have opened shutters, the halls are eerily empty.

The arcade opened this Monday and is seeing a footfall of only around 50 to 60 customers a day. "We're really lucky if we even make a single sale in a day now," said leather and pashmina storeowner Jeetu Pariani. That Wednesday a fortnight ago, Pariani had shut shop and gone home early to enjoy dinner with his wife.
 
"I was apprehensive to come back, but this shop is my only means of livelihood," said Pariani, who is now offering discounts of up to 40 per cent at his stores Elegant and India Carpets to draw in customers.

The arcade bears no sign of the damage wrecked on its host hotels, but yellow and black tape blocks entry to the shops. "We're in talks with the hotel to make some space for people to enter," said Rutty Birdy, owner of Christina, a clothes boutique.

"We're drawing in 10 per cent of the returns we normally would get at this time of the year. Also it's depressing since many of my customers have passed away like Mrs Ravi Dhera who was killed by the terrorists," she added.

The only bright spot for shop owners is that their merchandise wasn't vandalised or damaged like retail stores at the Taj Mahal Hotel.

Shops at Oberoi
The old Oberoi arcade houses more than 70 shops that include boutiques, leather stores, carpet house and jewellery.