Antique shops fail to see silver lining
Güncelleme Tarihi:
AFP
Oluşturulma Tarihi: Mart 10, 2009 00:00
ISTANBUL - Dropping liquidity hits households and forces people to start selling some precious items left for them by past generations to the antique dealers. ’People only come here to sell, not to buy nowadays,’ says one antique dealer whose shop is located in Çukurcuma district of Istanbul
In Çukurcuma, the Istanbul antique dealers' Mecca, the economic crisis has transformed shops into Ali Baba's caves filled with objects sold at low price by people in need, but falling income means there are still no buyers.
In the winding streets of this small kingdom for antique hunters below İstiklal Avenue, the main commercial street in Istanbul, shop owners pass the time drinking tea or chatting as they wait for clients who do not come.
"At the moment, people come here only to sell. The objects keep piling up but there is nobody to buy them," said Ayvaz Güney, whose family owns a second-hand furniture shop.
Güney's shop provides him a good vantage point to witness the deterioration of living conditions for the people of Istanbul, a sprawling metropolis of some 12 million people, as the global economic turndown bites into Turkey's economy.
"People sell more of their belongings. There are even some who sell things that they really need. Would you sell your fridge or washing machine? People have reached that point," he said. Fatih Baykan, whose shop is flooded with old books, trinkets and ornaments, agreed.
"Before the crisis, we used to grab big sets of objects or furniture. For example, when an old lady died, we could get all the furniture in her flat. Nowadays, people come with a few, small objects they sell out of necessity," he said.
To demonstrate his point, he gestured to an icon of a Virgin with Child set in a gold-colored frame.
"Yesterday evening, a woman in her 60s, from a Christian minority, came with that painting. We agreed on a price of 60 Turkish Liras ($35) and she left. She had not come to earn much money, but it was clear she needed it," Baykan said.
Steep drop in prices
If every cloud has a silver lining, Çukurcuma shop owners have yet to see it. "We sell items of luxury and pleasure. Right now, people are preoccupied first and foremost with basics, with paying their rent. They will not think of their pleasure unless they have a little money," said Sinan Deviren, who specializes in items from the 1950s to the 1970s.
"An item that used to sell for 5,000 liras one year ago now sells for 3,000 to 3,500 liras," he said, deploring a 30 to 40 percent drop in his turnover.
There is usually one other help line for the little world of Çukurcuma: advertising agencies and film studios in need of objects for the decor of their footage. But there too, times are hard.
"We come [to Çukurcuma] less often because the crisis means there are fewer commercials being shot because of reduced budgets," said Didem Özlü, an advertising company employee.
"We used to rent entire sets of old furniture Ğ now, we look at the prices, we are more selective. We take smaller and fewer objects," she said.
After several years of high growth at 5 to 10 percent, Turkey's economy slowed sharply last year to a mere 0.5 percent in the third quarter.
Annual inflation fell to 7.73 percent in February this year in line with falling demand and unemployment shot to a record 12.3 percent in January after the number of jobless swelled by 645,000 to reach 3 million.
Industrial production fell by 17.8 percent in December and by 21.3 percent in January, according to official figures.
In the winding streets of this small kingdom for antique hunters below İstiklal Avenue, the main commercial street in Istanbul, shop owners pass the time drinking tea or chatting as they wait for clients who do not come.
"At the moment, people come here only to sell. The objects keep piling up but there is nobody to buy them," said Ayvaz Güney, whose family owns a second-hand furniture shop.
Güney's shop provides him a good vantage point to witness the deterioration of living conditions for the people of Istanbul, a sprawling metropolis of some 12 million people, as the global economic turndown bites into Turkey's economy.
"People sell more of their belongings. There are even some who sell things that they really need. Would you sell your fridge or washing machine? People have reached that point," he said. Fatih Baykan, whose shop is flooded with old books, trinkets and ornaments, agreed.
"Before the crisis, we used to grab big sets of objects or furniture. For example, when an old lady died, we could get all the furniture in her flat. Nowadays, people come with a few, small objects they sell out of necessity," he said.
To demonstrate his point, he gestured to an icon of a Virgin with Child set in a gold-colored frame.
"Yesterday evening, a woman in her 60s, from a Christian minority, came with that painting. We agreed on a price of 60 Turkish Liras ($35) and she left. She had not come to earn much money, but it was clear she needed it," Baykan said.
Steep drop in prices
If every cloud has a silver lining, Çukurcuma shop owners have yet to see it. "We sell items of luxury and pleasure. Right now, people are preoccupied first and foremost with basics, with paying their rent. They will not think of their pleasure unless they have a little money," said Sinan Deviren, who specializes in items from the 1950s to the 1970s.
"An item that used to sell for 5,000 liras one year ago now sells for 3,000 to 3,500 liras," he said, deploring a 30 to 40 percent drop in his turnover.
There is usually one other help line for the little world of Çukurcuma: advertising agencies and film studios in need of objects for the decor of their footage. But there too, times are hard.
"We come [to Çukurcuma] less often because the crisis means there are fewer commercials being shot because of reduced budgets," said Didem Özlü, an advertising company employee.
"We used to rent entire sets of old furniture Ğ now, we look at the prices, we are more selective. We take smaller and fewer objects," she said.
After several years of high growth at 5 to 10 percent, Turkey's economy slowed sharply last year to a mere 0.5 percent in the third quarter.
Annual inflation fell to 7.73 percent in February this year in line with falling demand and unemployment shot to a record 12.3 percent in January after the number of jobless swelled by 645,000 to reach 3 million.
Industrial production fell by 17.8 percent in December and by 21.3 percent in January, according to official figures.