Safe & comfortable: High street scores higher with shoppers than malls

Footfall at 60-70% of last year's level; at malls, it is much less, but improving

Divya Deshpande is out for her Diwali shopping, albeit with mask and hand sanitiser in tow. But her shopping destination isn't the nearest mall in Goreg­aon or Malad, both suburbs in Mumbai. Instead, she heads to a marketplace in Andheri, closer to her home in Santacruz. She claims it is safe, comfortable, and easy to walk into a high-street store than a mall.

Deshpande isn't the only one feeling this way. A recent study by the Retailers of Association of India (RAI), the apex body of organised retailers in the country, said after the online channel, which has the highest