Setback to Ahmedabad's urban model? City malls witness 48% decline in footfalls, one of the highest in India

The mall which closed down

Are Ahmedabad’s malls, tom-tommed as an “example” of the city’s urban model, set to further lose their charm? It would seem so, if one goes by top industries body Associated Chamber of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM) report, which says that Ahmedabad’s malls has seen one of the highest declines in “footfalls” in India, next only to Delhi-National Capital Region (NCR). As per an ASSOCHAM survey, Delhi-NCR recorded the highest decline in footfalls at city malls (49.5%) , followed very closely by Ahmedabad (48.2%).

Other cities that have seen a high fall in “footfall” are Chennai (46%), Mumbai (42%) and Hyderabad (39%), the survey results, released by ASSOCHAM, said. While roughly 250-300 malls came up in the country in the last two years, 80-85% of the spaces in these malls still lie vacant. In Ahmedabad, the situation has particularly taken from bad to worse, as few of the top malls recently closed their shops or reduced their capacity drastically. Several of them were built by offering them huge concessions, and without even necessary environmental clearances.

ASSOCHAM does not think that this is due to recession having overtaken the cities, but because “online shopping has proved especially harsh for shopping malls.” The survey was conducted in 10 cities-Delhi-NCR, Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Chennai, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Chennai, Bangalore, Chandigarh and Dehradun. ASSOCHAM thinks, “Online shopping industry in India is fast catching on, not just in the larger metros but also in the smaller cities.”
The industry body estimates, things will only worsen for the malls this Diwali, when online shopping may increase by 350% as against the jump of 200% in August-September. The result is that, it says, “shopping malls have started feeling jittery as the footfalls in malls are likely to go down by 50-55%”. ASSOCHAM, however, does not provide inter-city comparison of how much has online actually caught up.
“During Diwali, Online shopping estimated to cross Rs 10,000 crore”, says ASSOCHAM, adding, “The online retailing to see the biggest flip ever in the history, going forward this trend will not only continue but it will grow by leaps and bounds. “At present the market is estimated at Rs. 12,000 crore and could cross Rs. 1,00,000 crore a year in India over the next three to four years”.
The survey, titled “Indian Online Retail Sales Surge in Festive Season”, reveals that there is more than a fivefold increase in revenue generated through e-commerce as compared to last year with all branded apparel, accessories, jewellery, gifts, footwear are available at a cheaper rates and delivered at the doorstep within two to three days. According to ASSOCHAM secretary-general DS Rawat, “Whole new audience is connected 24x7 through their smart phones, tablets and other mobile devices which are leading to a gradual evolution of e-commerce”.
ASSOCHAM said, e-commerce sales in August and September grew by 200% from the same months in 2013 (120%), with mobile sales booming 100%. “Consumers are turning to the internet savvy because of the fast and simple payment and delivery service. Online shopping is estimated to be up by 350% during the festive season than visiting bricks and mortar stores, adds its report”, it insisted, adding, “This festive season, shopping on ground has taken a back seat. Apart from convenience, rising fuel price, security reasons, online discounts and availability with abundance of choices are keeping consumers indoors”.

Comments

Ahmedabad's civic chaos: Drainage woes, waterlogging, and the illusion of Olympic dreams

In response to my blog on overflowing gutter lines at several spots in Ahmedabad's Vejalpur, a heavily populated area, a close acquaintance informed me that it's not just the middle-class housing societies that are affected by the nuisance. Preeti Das, who lives in a posh locality in what is fashionably called the SoBo area, tells me, "Things are worse in our society, Applewood."

RP Gupta a scapegoat to help Govt of India manage fallout of Adani case in US court?

RP Gupta, a retired 1987-batch IAS officer from the Gujarat cadre, has found himself at the center of a growing controversy. During my tenure as the Times of India correspondent in Gandhinagar (1997–2012), I often interacted with him. He struck me as a straightforward officer, though I never quite understood why he was never appointed to what are supposed to be top-tier departments like industries, energy and petrochemicals, finance, or revenue.

PharmEasy: The only online medical store which revises prices upwards after confirming the order

For senior citizens — especially those without a family support system — ordering medicines online can be a great relief. Shruti and I have been doing this for the last couple of years, and with considerable success. We upload a prescription, receive a verification call from a doctor, and within two or three days, the medicines are delivered to our doorstep.

Powering pollution, heating homes: Why are Delhi residents opposing incineration-based waste management

While going through the 50-odd-page report Burning Waste, Warming Cities? Waste-to-Energy (WTE) Incineration and Urban Heat in Delhi , authored by Chythenyen Devika Kulasekaran of the well-known advocacy group Centre for Financial Accountability, I came across a reference to Sukhdev Vihar — a place where I lived for almost a decade before moving to Moscow in 1986 as the foreign correspondent of the daily Patriot and weekly Link .

Environmental report raises alarm: Sabarmati one of four rivers with nonylphenol contamination

A new report by Toxics Link , an Indian environmental research and advocacy organisation based in New Delhi, in collaboration with the Environmental Defense Fund , a global non-profit headquartered in New York, has raised the alarm that Sabarmati is one of five rivers across India found to contain unacceptable levels of nonylphenol (NP), a chemical linked to "exposure to carcinogenic outcomes, including prostate cancer in men and breast cancer in women."

Dalit rights and political tensions: Why is Mevani at odds with Congress leadership?

While I have known Jignesh Mevani, one of the dozen-odd Congress MLAs from Gujarat, ever since my Gandhinagar days—when he was a young activist aligned with well-known human rights lawyer Mukul Sinha’s organisation, Jan Sangharsh Manch—he became famous following the July 2016 Una Dalit atrocity, in which seven members of a family were brutally assaulted by self-proclaimed cow vigilantes while skinning a dead cow, a traditional occupation among Dalits.

Tracking a lost link: Soviet-era legacy of Gujarati translator Atul Sawani

The other day, I received a message from a well-known activist, Raju Dipti, who runs an NGO called Jeevan Teerth in Koba village, near Gujarat’s capital, Gandhinagar. He was seeking the contact information of Atul Sawani, a translator of Russian books—mainly political and economic—into Gujarati for Progress Publishers during the Soviet era. He wanted to collect and hand over scanned soft copies, or if possible, hard copies, of Soviet books translated into Gujarati to Arvind Gupta, who currently lives in Pune and is undertaking the herculean task of collecting and making public soft copies of Soviet books that are no longer available in the market, both in English and Indian languages.

Boeing 787 under scrutiny again after Ahmedabad crash: Whistleblower warnings resurface

A heart-wrenching tragedy has taken place in Ahmedabad. As widely reported, a Boeing 787 Dreamliner plane crashed shortly after taking off from the city’s airport, currently operated by India’s top tycoon, Gautam Adani. The aircraft was carrying 230 passengers and 12 crew members. As expected, the crash has led to an outpouring of grief across the country. At the same time, there have been demands for the resignation of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah, and Civil Aviation Minister Venkaiah Naidu. The most striking comment came from BJP MP Subramanian Swamy, who stated : "When a train derailed in the 1950s, Lal Bahadur Shastri resigned. On the same morality, I demand PM Modi, HM Amit Shah, and Civil Aviation Minister Naidu resign so that a free and fair inquiry can be held. All that Modi and his associates have been doing so far is gallivanting, which must stop." Amidst widespread mourning, some fringe elements sought to communalize the tragedy. One post ...

Revisiting Gijubhai: Pioneer of child-centric education and the caste debate

It was Krishna Kumar, the well-known educationist, who I believe first introduced me to the name — Gijubhai Badheka (1885–1939). Hailing from Bhavnagar, known as the cultural capital of the Saurashtra region of Gujarat, Gijubhai, Kumar told me during my student days, made significant contributions to the field of pedagogy — something that hasn't received much attention from India's education mandarins. At that time, Kumar was my tutorial teacher at Kirorimal College, Delhi University.

Search This Blog