Malls gear up to open\, comply with curbs

News

Malls gear up to open, comply with curbs

Meenakshi Verma Ambwan New Delhi | Updated on June 07, 2020 Published on June 07, 2020

Safety measures A worker puts up a social distancing sticker at a mall ahead of its reopening , in New Delhi, on Sunday   -  ANUSHREE FADNAVIS

How malls are gearing up to open doors for consumers

As shopping malls in several States gear up to open their doors on Monday, they will be leveraging technology to monitor footfalls to ensure social-distancing and offer contactless payment options at food courts and parking spaces.

After the Health Ministry’s Standard Operating Procedures (SOP), State governments have released their own norms for malls.

Haryana has decided to open malls in all districts except Gurguram and Faridabad. Punjab said entry into malls will be based on a token system, use of escalators instead of elevators will be encouraged and restaurants and food courts will only open for takeaways and deliveries.

Jayen Naik, Senior Vice-President, Operations & Projects, Nexus Malls, said for now the company will be opening three of its malls in Amritsar, Chandigarh and Ahmedabad.

“In the past few days, we have been training our staff for implementation of various safety and hygiene protocols. Sanitisation is being undertaken at all these properties... We have also tied up with Bureau Veritas to ensure our protocols are vetted by a third-party agency,” he added.

‘Contactless’ transactions

“We are in the process of deploying a QR code-based technology for ordering and payments at food courts and parking. The focus is on reducing the number of touch points as much as possible for contactless transactions,” he added.

Pushpa Bector, Executive Director, DLF Shopping Malls, which has malls in the Delhi-NCR region, said the company is gearing up to open its properties in the next 3-5 days in line with State and local-level norms and safety protocols.

“We are also embracing technology for real time foot traffic, real time notifications on safety and cleanliness, booking of time slots, golden hours to visit our malls which our consumers will be able to experience very soon on the DLF Malls ‘Lukout’ app,” she added.

Industry players said while footfalls may be low initially, per-person spends are likely to be higher as only consumers who want to do need-based purchases will walk into malls.

Rashmi Sen, Group COO- Malls, Phoenix Mills Ltd, said: “We believe in the next 30-45 days, consumers will gradually gain confidence to get back into the habit of shopping at malls.”

Phoenix Mills is gearing up to open three of its malls at Bengaluru, Lucknow and Bareilly on Monday. “Besides the prescribed protocols for screening, social-distancing and sanitisation, we have deployed UV scanners for bags and contactless payment options at food courts and parking spaces,” Sen added.

Published on June 07, 2020

A letter from the Editor

Dear Readers,

The coronavirus crisis has changed the world completely in the last few months. All of us have been locked into our homes, economic activity has come to a near standstill. Everyone has been impacted.

Including your favourite business and financial newspaper. Our printing and distribution chains have been severely disrupted across the country, leaving readers without access to newspapers. Newspaper delivery agents have also been unable to service their customers because of multiple restrictions.

In these difficult times, we, at BusinessLine have been working continuously every day so that you are informed about all the developments – whether on the pandemic, on policy responses, or the impact on the world of business and finance. Our team has been working round the clock to keep track of developments so that you – the reader – gets accurate information and actionable insights so that you can protect your jobs, businesses, finances and investments.

We are trying our best to ensure the newspaper reaches your hands every day. We have also ensured that even if your paper is not delivered, you can access BusinessLine in the e-paper format – just as it appears in print. Our website and apps too, are updated every minute, so that you can access the information you want anywhere, anytime.

But all this comes at a heavy cost. As you are aware, the lockdowns have wiped out almost all our entire revenue stream. Sustaining our quality journalism has become extremely challenging. That we have managed so far is thanks to your support. I thank all our subscribers – print and digital – for your support.

I appeal to all or readers to help us navigate these challenging times and help sustain one of the truly independent and credible voices in the world of Indian journalism. Doing so is easy. You can help us enormously simply by subscribing to our digital or e-paper editions. We offer several affordable subscription plans for our website, which includes Portfolio, our investment advisory section that offers rich investment advice from our highly qualified, in-house Research Bureau, the only such team in the Indian newspaper industry.

A little help from you can make a huge difference to the cause of quality journalism!

Support Quality Journalism
TN reports 1,515 new Covid-19 cases