If you’re looking for a barometer of global economic health, look no further than the empty aisles of this Chinese tradeshow, the Canton Fair, a biannual showcase of every physical good you can possibly imagine. This year’s Canton Fair was touted as the biggest ever, which they might have managed in square footage, but definitely not in attendance. AP cites, for example, the collapse of the lucrative Eastern European vacuum-cleaner market:

But when the doors opened on Oct. 15, many of the Chinese exhibitors were already gloomy.

“We’re looking at the financial crisis in America and Europe and we’re becoming worried about the future,” said Xiang Tao, as he stood in a booth surrounded by purple vacuum cleaners made by his company, Wuxi Jiejia Electric Appliances Co.

Xiang said most of the firm’s foreign customers are in Eastern Europe, though the company has hopes of exporting to the U.S. eventually. “But this definitely isn’t the time to try to break into the American market,” he said.

Sadder though was the dude at this booth. This story is so emo that I am glad he doesn’t have access to real firearms:

By the end of the second session that closed Oct. 28, many exhibitors said their nightmares had come true.

“I sat here all morning and didn’t have one customer stop by,” said a toy factory salesman who would only give his surname, Chen, because he was not authorized to talk to reporters. The salesman, whose company was based in the southern city of Shantou, sat in a booth displaying plastic toy handguns that shot tiny pellets. “I haven’t had any orders so far at this fair. This is all I have,” he said, reaching into a tattered shoe box and grabbing four business cards left by prospective buyers. “All I can do is go back to the factory and give them a follow-up call. It’s going to be hard to survive.”

This is bad news not just for the broad consumer-goods market but also for any company whose business hinges on shipping, on imports of raw materials to China or on access to plastic toy handguns with tiny pellets. And really bad news for Chen, because I don’t think the AP did a very good job of insuring his anonymity  unless there are a lot of guys named Chen who carry around ratty shoeboxes while repping the faux-pistolero market.