Mumbai malls see 25% decline in footfall on fresh Covid-19 curbs

Night curfew to take away crucial evening business; cinema halls, malls, and restaurants to remain shut between 8 pm and 7 am

Malls in Mumbai have witnessed a 25 per cent fall in footfall in a week since the random rapid antigen testing began at shopping centres across the city.
 
Now, a night curfew imposed since midnight of Saturday is expected to take away the crucial evening business for retailers and restaurants.
 
“Certainly, the food and beverage retailers, who were beginning to recover after months of staying shut, will suffer a setback because of the night curfew. Overall, a night curfew will affect shopping sentiment, since people cannot step out after 8 pm,” said Rajneesh Mahajan, chief executive officer (CEO), Inorbit Malls.

 

Mumbai on Saturday crossed the 6,000-mark in terms of new coronavirus (Covid-19) cases daily, forcing the Uddhav Thackeray government to enforce strict measures from midnight.
 
This included banning gatherings of five or more people and closure of public places, including gardens and beaches. And cinema halls, malls and restaurants will remain shut between 8 pm and 7 am.
 
“A night curfew will hit the dine-in services of restaurants. In a city like Mumbai, the first dinner shift does not start before 8-8.30 pm.  So, the impact will be hard,” said Anurag Katriar, president, National Restaurant Association of India (NRAI).

 
While the night curfew will be in place in Mumbai and Maharashtra till April 15, retailers and mall owners expect the measures to be extended further in view of the surge in Covid-19 cases in the state.
 
The revenue loss is expected to hurt rental negotiations between mall owners and retailers for FY22. In FY21, most mall owners had given a waiver on rentals during lockdown and had subsequently offered discounts varying between 25 and 50 per cent to retailers, who were slowly getting back to business during the Unlock phase.
 
Rentals for restaurants and multiplexes in Mumbai, which re-opened only in October, were staggered following re-opening. Mall owners admit that the April-June period this year, an important quarter for retail, since it is the holiday season, will be challenging on account of the second Covid wave.

 
“We will have to wait and watch how the period (April-June) unfolds. Yes, March has been difficult. The recovery rate, in terms of sales, which was going strong up to last month, has fallen. We are monitoring the situation closely,” said Rajendra Kalkar, president, West, Phoenix Mills.
 
Till February, the recovery rate in terms of sales for malls was around 85 per cent in Mumbai.
 
Footfalls had touched around 55-60 per cent. Apart from restaurants and retail stores, which will feel the pinch of restricted business hours in the evening, multiplex operators will have to contend with lack of fresh content. This is because film producers may delay big releases again on account of poor footfalls.

 
“Hindi blockbusters were supposed to release April onwards in anticipation of good business during the holiday season. That may have to wait,” added Mahajan.
 
The Maharashtra government has already issued Covid-19 guidelines in two tranches in a week, capping the number of people to half in cinemas, restaurants, auditoriums and private offices, apart from banning social, political and religious gatherings.
 
The state government had also restricted the number of people to 50 for weddings and 20 for funerals.