Meltdown impact: Malls offer gifts

BANGALORE: Come and make a purchase, for you may be the lucky one to win a designer car!
This is the "way-out" technique mall operators in the IT city have adopted to beat the impact of global meltdown and dip in business. Their basket of gifts also include gold coins, diamond necklaces and workshop on Salsa among others.
Shopping malls, which witnessed a dip in profits after the global recession are now back to wooing "elusive" customers by dangling some lucrative carrots in front of the horse cart.
"We have seen a dip in footfalls by 20 to 30 per cent in the last six months", says Anjani Kumar, Marketing Manager, Sigmall Mall, a premier shopping complex located on the busy Cunningham Road.
The mall, which sees a visitor count of 8,000 to 11,000 every day and 15,000 to 20,000 on weekends and 20,000 to 25,000 on festival days, has been affected by recession, admits Kumar. Terror attack only compounded their woes.
According to Prateek Gupta, Marketing Manager, Bangalore Central, the sector had in general seen a fall of 30 to 50 per cent while Bangalore central saw a drop of 15 per cent following some measures it took to control the downturn.
The IT sector which formed a sizeable chunk of consumers, accounting for nearly 25 per cent, has seen a dip, says Kumar. In Sigma, the IT shoppers comprised 60 per cent of the crowd. However, following the meltdown there has been a decline of 20 per cent in this customer segment.