I am on one of the best possible assignments — shopping! And on a busy weekday, I find so many others like me on an outing. Its noon and I am waiting for my turn behind three others at the cash counter inside the standalone hyper market, all decked up for the yuletide season.
Standing in front of me, Ms. Radha’s trolley is loaded with goodies and groceries. She casually turns back and throws an indignant look at the packet of muesli and biscuit in my hand. I smile at her. She says, “many of the things in my shopping bag are compulsive buying!”
Malls may be dying elsewhere in the big metros but here in tier II and III cities, the new hypermarkets and mega stores have just begun to turn shopping into fun-filled outing. It is no longer an ordeal as buyers are indulging. “I always walk in with a list of items needed at home but leave buying quite a few extra things,” she adds.
She is one among many who belie the doom-saying that in small towns malls are not working given the low purchase capacity. Rather, the region has been more receptive, confides a Reliance Market official. “If the retail portfolio is carefully built and we are sensitive to the costing then we have a future here,” he says.
Inside a mall, I follow a family of nine, consisting of aged parents, a young couple and three pre-teens children and two other unmarried siblings. They have travelled from Ramnad “for the experience”. “My daughter will be going abroad for the first time after marriage, says the senior most, “we are here to check out things that are modern.”
They walk in and out of the branded garments shops, footwear, electronics, toys and jewellery stores. They appear a bit lost but are awestruck by the collection and refer to the price tags in hushed tones. Though they came to update themselves with the latest in the market, they are a trifle upset not to find a traditional dhavani here. When they settle down with ice creams at the food court, I enquire whether they would visit the mall again. They affirm they would because it “was fun”.
Madurai has grown up to have its own life. Yet there is a new reason now to stop by and venture. The BigBazaar on Bypass Road, Milan`Em Mall in K.K.Nagar, Vishal De Mall near Chokkikulam and the big Reliance Market in Othakadai along with other Reliance stores in Anna Nagar and Bibikulam are making the local businesses and residents understand that Madurai is in some ways small to sustain its small town charm by itself. It needs these shopping meccas in order to upgrade itself in the eyes of the world. They generate their own economy too.
Whether a mall or a hypermarket, much of the strategy depends on the demographics it serves. All these one-roof shopping zones with their maze of walkways and stretch of racks, fast food courts and entertainment holes have put their signatures in Madurai’s retail landscape. If one stuns with its sheer size, others do so for the range of shopping or the social diversions they provide from food to cinema.
Aditi brings her son from Sivagangai almost every weekend to spend time in the play zone. Ms.Beena comes with her daughter-in-law and grandchildren from Sivakasi on weekly trips to the mall. “There is nothing else in the vicinity for us,” she says, “here we can congregate with our friends, entertain ourselves, eat and also buy things,
Everybody seems to love the convenience of it all. Reiterates Mr. Tariq Ali, trying to control his six-year-old grandson, who wants every other item from the stationery section, “It is a good time pass as we get to see a lot of variety and also pick up the best bargain.”
“You no longer have to run around to different shops to buy different things. The environment is comfortable here,” adds another shopper Mr. Shridhar.
But then drawing crowds is not the same as drawing profits. Getting people to a mall once is easy, says Cavin Deepak, Store Manager of Big Bazaar. When a new centre opens, most of the visitors are window shoppers, checking out prices and stuff out of curiosity.
“Getting them to return and spend money depends on the mall promoter’s ability to maintain the premises and be innovative in atrium activities,” says Amar Vora who gave the city its first mall four years ago. "Retail is constantly evolving,” he says, and believes brands and stores come and go but malls are here to stay. The size and location plays a major role, he adds.
Malls are siphoning off shoppers. But while the locals miss the bargaining in a mall, the distant traveller tends to find sense and purpose in repeated mall visits. Take the case in point of Mr.Kanan who visits a super market every morning to check the price of a biscuit packet. And returns disappointed because, he makes a note in the complaint register, that the kirana store round the corner sells the same packet for 25 to 50 paise less than the MRP. He prefers shopping streets over malls.
But not school teacher Chitra. “It’s much more easy to come here to these big stores given the large parking spaces they offer and also pick up things in one go at a good price,” she says. For Sumithra, the courteous and helpful staff at the hypermarkets and also the confidence of not being cheated at the mall matters and induces a different brand of fun in shopping.
Dittoes Radhika, a homemaker, “Shopping has become a family experience. We spend hours browsing through the enormous amount of merchandise.” It is a stress-buster. For college-goer Niskha, malls are the best places to hang out with friends or even find some part time job. When her generation of mall visitors says it is a great meeting place, it reflects the potential of these new markets. Footfalls become irrelevant if the cash registers keep ringing. Amar Vora reiterates, “Sixty per cent of the people who step inside the mall visit the anchor store and of them 80 per cent make purchases.”
In towns like Madurai where entertainment options are limited, the mall is a great place to go and be seen. And when an imprudent purchase raises the spirits, it is bonus. Retail therapy and shoppertainment are the other words for such an experience.
After all, shopping has always been considered a classic way to banish blues. Who would disagree especially when it is getting bigger, better and faster inside the big stores?
(City 3Sixty is a monthly column that captures the different moods of the city. It appears last Thursday of every month).
