Gurugram malls reopen, receive slow footfall

Sumedha Sharma
Tribune News Service
Gurugram, July 1

After almost four months, the malls in Gurugram reopened on Wednesday.

The malls received a lukewarm response despite taking all safety and security measures amid the ongoing pandemic.

The malls, even, announced sales post noon, but they received a slow footfall.

“We expected a good footfall especially with the youngsters, but have got a lukewarm response. We, even, sent out messages about special offers in our mall after 12:00 pm, but no use. We are hoping for business to pick up by evening,” said one of the mall managers on the MG Road.

“The malls have been worst hit by COVID lockdown, and it will take many months to bring people back. We have been opened and have spent a moolah putting all SOP's in place to fight any fear of COVID transmission but don't expect much business. People are sticking to online shopping and nobody wants to come in for buying clothes, shoes etc. The Cinema halls are shut so is the play area and half the food court With no recreation we don't expect many to come in,” said a mall owner in Sushant lok.

Surprisingly, one of the most popular and crowd-gathering malls, Ambience, on Delhi-Gurugram border also bore a barren look this afternoon.

The malls have seen a drop in online sales after they were reopened. Meanwhile, the MCG teams are keeping a close tab on all the malls.

“We have been inspecting their arrangements every few hours. No many people have turned out owing to COVID fear, but we are ensuring complete sanitization and screening modules to keep malls ready for shoppers,” said Joint Commissioner, Hari Om Attri.