Business was lean on day one of the reopening of malls across the State after months of lockdown.
On Tuesday, Chennai's prominent malls saw only serious buyers walking in, despite many retail outlets being open for business.
“It was encouraging to see a sizeable number of people walk into the mall. We expect the number to gradually increase during the weekends. We were glad to see people adhere to COVID protocols and shop responsibly,” said Pooja Patti, centre director, Phoenix Market City and Palladium. “Of the 315 shops, 162 opened on day one, and the others will open over the next 2-3 days.”
At Express Avenue, around 200 shops opened their shutters on Tuesday. The mall has 220 outlets in total. “A few shops at the food court will open in the next 48 hours, once they get sufficient manpower,” said Munish Khanna, chief revenue officer, Express Avenue. “The management has also waived off rent for the lockdown period [based on certain parameters]. Going forward, rentals will be charged based on the sales that each store garners,” he said. The management of the mall has come out with this sort of rental slab (it would vary from shop to shop depending on sales). “We have kept this structure up to December,” he said. At a clothing store in Forum Vijaya Mall in Vadapalani, there were only four customers in the afternoon. Generally, on a normal day, the store had a footfall of around it used to have 40-50 people. “There were only serious buyers. Every single person who walked in billed at the counter,” he said expecting sales to pick up next week.
Food brands operating out of malls said they were waiting for some of their workers to return by this weekend, and would then commence business. Mall owners and experts tracking the retail sector said that by mid-October business would start picking up and by December they were confident of reaching last year's numbers. “People will get used to the new normal,” an expert said.
T.N. has at least 25 malls providing employment to over 45,000 people. According to recent data provided by the Shopping Centres Association of India, shopping centres across Tamil Nadu generate an annual consumption turnover of ₹15,000 crore. They contribute over ₹1,300 crore to the State exchequer through GST and other levies.
