JOIN USFestive shopping begins on muted note
Even four months after malls reopened in Bengaluru, business hasn’t returned to normal.
Footfalls and sales are usually high from October to December, but this year, the pandemic has dimmed Dasara-Deepavali business prospects.
Apparel and fashion stores are offering big discounts in a bid to attract customers.
Metrolife called Forum Mall, Koramangala, and Vega City, J P Nagar, and Orion, Rajajinagar, and found them waiting for business to pick up, although Navaratri began on October 17.
“Before Covid-19, we used to get good walk-ins, but now, people are cautious, and prefer to buy on e-commerce sites,” the manager for a leading brand outlet says. The store receives only six or seven customers daily, compared to the 30 before the pandemic broke out.
Bengalureans are, however, slowly getting back to shopping at the malls. “The numbers have gradually increased since June,” a store manager says.
At Vega City, a leading fashion outlet is getting only 10-12 customers a day. “On weekends, we get 20-25 customers because people come to watch movies at PVR,” a store executive says. The weekends were busier before the first lockdown in March, with upwards of 70 daily customers.
The stores are taking precautions seriously. Sanitisers are placed at multiple locations, and clothes that are tried on are placed in quarantine for up to four days.
Fashion brand Only, for instance, has introduced UV sanitising. “We hang a single cloth at a time and sanitise it for one minute,” says a representative of the brand store at Orion, Rajajinagar.
Brands are offering deals and discounts. Allen Solly and Biba are offering cashback and vouchers. Only gives out scratch cards worth between Rs 750 and Rs 5,999 on every purchase of Rs 5,999. Whatever value is on the card is deducted from the bill.