[Jeroen]

Here in Western Europe retail, as in real physical shops, have struggles for probably at least the last two decades. Both your typical high street as well as shopping malls have seen a steady decline in visitors.

I can remember, I must have been 16-17 (so 50 years ago. Give or take!) the first real shopping malls in the Netherlands opening. It was an absolute sensation. How things have changed.

However, a couple of years ago a brand new shopping mall opened, just outside The Hague.

https://www.westfield.com/en/netherl...thenetherlands

It has been extremely succesful. People come from all over the Netherlands, Germany and Belgium to visit it.

I happened to read an article about it recently. A couple of interesting things I picked up.

A successful mall is not about shopping. It offers you a total experience (whatever that means). In practice it means the mall management must be very careful and very precise how they allocate shop space to whom.

It’s the mall management that determines what shops find their way into their mall. The Westfield folks don’t allow anybody in with just a regular shop. Not even the big names. Anything you can see/do online and or in the high street is simply not good enough. You need to come up with something special that appeals to folk beyond the actual products you are serving.

Westfield aims for a 10% churn, just in order to get sufficient new blood into its tenants. They also make clear choices between real shops, and those who provide food/drink experience or other experiences (e.g. there is a huge cinemas, gym and a few other fascilities that you would not find in your regular mall.

Tenants rent is based upon their turn over. So they are obliged to share their turnovers with the mall management. I believe they share daily numbers. So the mall management knows exactly how well its tenants are doing. Are they growing their business, is it going down. Which ones are doing well, which ones are struggling

Also, they differentiate in rent per sector. So somebody selling wooden toys for babies and toddlers, would be paying a different percentage of their turn over than say a high end fashion shop. It allows the mall management to attract a very diverse kind of shops and entrepreneurs!

If the mall management is basically a couple of real estate guys trying to flog square meters of shopping premises, it is not going to fly these days.

The Westfield management holds continuous talks with its tenants, comes up with joint promotions, and spends a lot of time and energy in talking to the mall customers.

It is sort rewinding the clock 50 years. People will travel from afar. More importantly, lots of folks will visit multiple times a year. It has become a bit of a family outing.

I am not a retailer. But I think if your business makes it to the list of “things to do with the whole family” you are onto a good thing! This mall is now listed in all kinds of “places to see”, things to do and so on.

Jeroen

[SideView]

Not in Bangalore atleast! New ones cropping up every year. One recently even opened at ecity (M5), this area seem to have less malls compared to other parts so I see scope for more coming up.


With the population and traffic conditions here, people i guess would prefer to go to nearest mall. (Maybe once in a while go to fancy new ones “Mall of asia” anyone? )

Family and I do some window shopping over the weekends once in a while (but somehow end up spending 1000+ bucks)

[sinharishi]

Might be true for NCR but not for Mumbai. My visits to Malls have increased after moving back to Mumbai which are packed even on weekdays! In my vicinity, there are 2 prominent ones, Oberoi and Growels. Oberoi is coming up with another one which opens to public next month.

I also rate Palladium as one of the best in Mumbai if not the best. I still prefer going out for the movies, InOrbit is solely surviving on multiplexes IMHO. I just love the movie experience at Insiginas.

These malls have good dine-in options and in Mumbai finding a parking place is always stressful, so these malls are boon in overcrowded cities like Mumbai.

[CafeRacer16]

In retail spaces, only the most diverse malls or those with ability to keep themselves updated will survive. In Bengaluru, there used to be 7 malls in 4km radius of where I live. Out of these, 2 closed down, 3 are half empty & other 2 are thriving (like last week I had to ultimately go some place else because there was no parking available)

The two thriving offer everything right from multiple shopping to dining options & since they provide everything people tend to go to these 2 malls only.

In the 3 half empty malls, most of the footfall is due to multiplexes or some restaurants that they have.

[SR5471]

Meanwhile the newly opened Lulu Mall at Kottayam is causing huge traffic jams due to the volume of people visiting. At the least some malls are thriving.

[rx100]

Originally Posted by naveen.raju

But people here, especially in Kochi are definitely demanding more malls in areas like Kakkanad which hopefully get the Forum mall in 2028.

Any idea if this plan is still in place? I’m wondering where they’re going to find land to build it. There’s no way they can construct next to Prestige Hillside Apartments, as there isn’t enough land, and the traffic is already a mess there during weekdays, thanks to the narrow road.

[naveen.raju]

Originally Posted by rx100

Any idea if this plan is still in place? I’m wondering where they’re going to find land to build it. There’s no way they can construct next to Prestige Hillside Apartments, as there isn’t enough land, and the traffic is already a mess there during weekdays, thanks to the narrow road.

Unfortunately, it should be in the same complex since they have a huge land there. People say construction already started.

Phoenix is planning to start construction in Kochi by 2027.

[AMG Power]

Was contacted by a Reputed large mall builder to buy shares / invest in their company. They do not intend to invest large amounts by themselves as they did earlier - the risk is apparent.

Mall builders have already sensed the writing on the wall and looking to mitigate their risk through reduced direct investment / reducing the scale of the mall / focusing on Tier 2 cities where there is still some excitement left in the locals to visit malls.

Even in Tier 2 cities, some malls have died or have seen a minor rebirth, many are dying and new investments are a pale shadow of their earlier scale.

The ease of shopping online, traffic jams till the mall, time spent in blocks during entry and exit, same old same old stores with a now reducing variety / old stocks, food courts that do not have quality food, lack of healthy & fine dining options, poor service - the list goes on.

It is only a matter of time before the current wave of interest now seen in Tier 2 cities wanes and remaining malls die a slow death.

[androdev]

Lot of crowd but very few shoppers. Orion mall, Rajaji Nagar, Bangalore.

[OffRoadFun]

The mall craze has gone down, a few malls do thrive in Bangalore with huge crowds especially on weekends as per my observations. (Personally, I never was a fan of (crowded) malls and have been more than happy to order each and everything online which I almost do now. I go to malls once in a while with family). During last many years I have seen many malls closing down in Bangalore (Total Mall one of the prominent ones).

I think a few big ones may survive and will make good profits due to sheer size of rising middle class. Someone mentioned builders courting investors for mall construction. I recalled an interesting article on this (a bit old) where hedge fund made killing of hundreds of millions of dollars in the US by shorting the shares of companies which invested in malls or managed them. For that, the fund managers and upper management visited many malls themselves (in plain clothes as customers), made diligent observations on footfall and business before deciding to short them. Interesting read. Not sure we have such companies in India but still an interesting read on how to profit from everything (during covid and later).

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/24/b...dge-funds.html