Impact of Shopping Malls On the Older Shopping areas in a city.

Impact of Shopping Malls on the older shopping areas in a city

New shopping Malls in a city influence the flow of consumers. The consumer are attracted to the new shopping Malls and slowly the flow of consumers reduces in the older areas of the city. If one were to take the example of Banglore, and ask any old-timer about the best shopping area in the country he would vouch for areas like commercial street and brigade road, but when the same question is put to the younger generation the answer would be the Forum, Garuda or Sigma, the new shopping malls in the city. The older shopping areas like commercial street , Safina plaza have witnessed a drop in sales or are not growing at the expected rates after the emergence of the Malls in the city.

Why is this happening? is it just a fad and will the novelty of the concept fade with time. There are certain distinct benefits that the consumer gets when he decides to make his purchases in a shopping Mall, first is the hassle free parking that these Malls are providing to consumers. Even ten years back owners would ask their drivers not to park but to keep going round and round till they finish their purchases in Brigade road. Today finding parking for a two-wheeler has become difficult. Though one might find it odd that I have decided to give this as the first reason, for a hard-core banglorean the traffic has increased many fold in the last ten years and for him comfortable parking would definitely act as a major plus to his shopping experience. And that should be true for most of the bigger cities in the country today.

Second is the more obvious reason, or more choice that a purchaser would get when he walks into a Mall. Like if one were planning to purchase a pair of branded shoes and goes into the Mall, then he will have probably find most of the popular brands under the same roof, which makes his life easier. He will also assured of better stocks when he goes to the Mall vis-à-vis a single brand shop in the older shopping area of the city.

Third benefit, which he would be getting, is the combined package that the Mall owners try to provide for the consumer. The combination of shopping, entertainment and food makes it a complete family experience for the shopper. It becomes a weekend destination for the consumer to which he can come with his family in the morning, spend some time shopping, watch a movie, and have a dinner and go back to his house in the evening. The family is able to spend the whole day in the Mall and the owner’s benefit from the extra wallet share that they have gained from the combination of shopping, entertainment and food. And then there is also the benefit of spill-over, a consumer coming in to watch movie ends up buying some clothes influenced by the promotions and so on.

One of the other benefits which is quite relevant to the colder countries is that these closed shopping malls would also protect the consumers from the weather outside while shopping, which would not be possible when the shoppers are there out in the older shopping areas. It might not be very relevant in the context of India, but still can be counted as one of the benefits.
Looking at all the benefits it is quite clear that it would be very difficult for the older shopping areas to compete with Malls on these issues. Does that mean that the emergence of Malls is a death kneel to the older shopping areas. This need not be true, in his book "Call of the Mall" Paco Underhill has described how shopping Malls are in a decline in the developed countries. What the author has to say will the topic for another blog some other time.