KOLKATA: After surpassing 2019 sales in the run-up to Durga Puja, malls in the city turned into hangout zones for youngsters and clocked record food and beverage (F&B) sales during the festive days.
At South City, one of the most popular malls in the city and the largest in eastern India, footfall and revenue during Durga Puja have not only exceeded the numbers clocked in 2019, but have been the highest ever.
“Malls have a decent turnout during Puja, but not exceptionally high since people are out pandal hopping. But since there were restrictions on entry to the pandals and people had nowhere to go, they ventured into malls they are familiar with and consider safe since protocols are being maintained,” said South City mall vice-president Manmohan Bagree.
The aggregate footfall between Panchami and Dashami was 4.5 lakh, of which 1 lakh visitors were recorded on Panchami itself. Revenue from F&B sales was around 15%-20% more than that of 2019 and nearly 100% more than that of 2020.
F&B revenue at the two City Centre malls in Salt Lake and New Town also showed 100% growth. Till Dashami, the footfall at City Centre-I was 4.2 lakh and that at City Centre-II was 3.2 lakh.
“All malls have seen satisfactory growth in sales and footfall without any support from multiplexes. Usually, we get 20% of our total footfall due to multiplexes. But, for the first time, with no releases from Bollywood worth mentioning, footfall translated to sales, which will now set a different trend in retail business as dynamics have changed,” said Ramesh Pandey, wholetime director of Ambuja Neotia Group that owns and operates the two malls.
Forum, the city’s first mall which is now positioned as a boutique facility on Elgin Road, does not have a food court. But its restaurants did phenomenal business through the Puja.
The footfall at Mani Square was around 2.8 lakh on the six Puja days beginning Panchami with the food court, restaurants and cafes recording high business.
Footfall and sales at Acropolis during the festive days, too, surpassed the pre-pandemic figures, clocking over 2 lakh visitors. “Our footfall grew by 80% and revenue grew by 25% over Puja 2019. The F&B outlets are absolutely ecstatic over how the Puja has panned out for them. Even fine-dining facilities clocked huge numbers,” said mall general manager K Vijayan.
Only Quest, positioned as a premium mall, recorded footfall and sales that were lower than that of the Puja in 2019. Though footfall was 50% higher than last Puja, it was still 20% short of the figures recorded in 2019.
With Pujas over, the malls expect business to dip over the next 10-12 days before it picks up prior to Diwali.
