Delhi’s Select CITYWALK has added 20 plus stores in the past six months, after including four new entrants — Sassy Begum, Harajuku Café, Haagen Dazs and New Balance — into its fold last month.
By adding these stores, Yogeshwar Sharma, Executive Director & CEO, Select CITYWALK, is expecting an upswing in business and consumer sentiment after witnessing a revival of markets post the pandemic. “Adding new brands to the portfolio ensures a fresh perspective for consumers as well.”
Taking the positive side of the pandemic in his stride, Sharma has redecorated the mall. “When business was on the lower side, some brands decided to leave us. So, we changed the placement of some of the brands as we wanted to accommodate more stores. We thought why not use the space for one for three,” he reasons, stating the decision of playing with the space “as now or never”.
The recent entrants include gourmet dates from Bateel, authentic Japanese food Harajuku Tokyo Café, delicacies from Sly Granny, Pita Pit & ice-cream delights from Häagen-Dazs, an American ice cream brand. “Cafes and cinema halls always remain the anchor for the store as they pull crowds,” informs Sharma.
As the mall charges Rs 350-Rs 400 per square feet for a retail store, opening a new venture here is bit of a risk. But that’s when the management takes a call “Suppose we have two eyewear stores, allowing one more eyewear store to open here would make it difficult. The brands, in order to compete with each other, will start giving discounts which is not a good situation for anybody.
We also have a basic idea of our customers’ spending habits, which helps us to decide a new store,” informs Sharma. Patience is the key to run a mall, says Sharma, when asked to comment on the many malls lying deserted in the Capital. “Return on investment comes only after a good two-three years. One should not treat a mall as a real-estate project, like building one and moving on to the next project. In our mall, the entire team has focused on this mall since its inception in October 2007,” he adds.