3 weeks since Unlock 2.0, Gurgaon shopping malls report 30 percent ‘pre-pandemic’ footfall

Three weeks since the Haryana government allowed shopping malls to open, Gurgaon malls are reporting healthy footfall bringing cheers on the faces of shopkeepers and business establishments which have borne heavy losses during the one and a half years of pandemic. An Indian Express report claimed a few shopping malls officials who said that the number of visitors a day had reached about 30 percent of the pre-pandemic level.

Ambience Mall in the city which is one of the most visited is reporting as many as 50000 visitors on the weekend. An official from Ambience Private Limited told the Indian Express that the mall is getting about 50000 visitors on the weekends as compared to the 80000 it used to receive earlier. The official said that the recovery is impressive as not even a month has passed since the malls were allowed to open.

MGF Metropolitan Mall officials also told the Indian Express that activity at the mall has picked up but it is not back to the pre-pandemic levels. MGF Metropolitan Mall Association official Aman Bajaj said that the mall is not even expecting the pre-pandemic footfall in the near future as 40-50 percent of the visitors coming to the mall in normal times are window-shoppers who are not going to come in the near future and all customers visiting the mall at the moment are with an intent to buy things. Officials from the South Point Mall in the city concurred by saying that visitors have swelled to about 50 percent of normal times.

Shobha Sengupta, president of the South Point Condominium Association told the Indian Express that people have started coming to the tune of 50 percent of normal days footfall. Sengupta also said that most retail workers at the mall had received at least one dose of their Covid-19 vaccine and vaccination drives are also being conducted by the association on the mall premises. Shopping malls in the city were permitted to operate after a closure of about 5 weeks amidst the second wave of Coronavirus in the country.