The malls in Kolkata received a mixed reaction on Wednesday when the facilities reopened after being closed for 45 days due to restrictions imposed by the West Bengal government to check the spread of coronavirus.
As the Covid situation improved, the state administration allowed malls to operate with 25 per cent staff and a maximum of 30 per cent footfall capacity from 11 am to 6 pm for stores and 8 pm for restaurants.
Mall managers said all employees deployed on Wednesday are vaccinated and the premises have been sanitised.
“About 90 per cent of stores opened. Vibes are positive but footfall is not very high due to lack of public transport and restriction on movement of private cars,” Acropolis Mall head K Vijayan said.
South City mall management said they received a better response this time than the first day of the reopening after lockdown 1. “We had a footfall of around 10,000 today which is higher in comparison with the first day of previous unlock when we had received about 7,000 footfalls. Sales were also higher by 15-18 per cent than the previous unlock. The trend is very positive,” South City head Manmohan Bagree said.
A few managers said that malls that have good catchment of visitors did well compared to standalone malls due to curbs on transport facilities. Malls do not foresee footfall restriction hurting their business at least for now as actual footfall is far lower than respective permitted numbers.
“We encourage the visit of only serious shoppers. All new malls have footfall scanners so managing 30 per cent of capacity will not be difficult,” Bagree said.
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