In the Chennai city, shoppers and retailers to show cautious attitude now
Posted on: 02/Sep/2020 9:37:10 AM
In the last 5 months, the shoppers as well as retailers` attitudes have changed due to the threat of Coronavirus infection in Chennai. It is now said that both retailers and shoppers are moving forward with a cautious attitude.
With the re-opening of malls and other showrooms etc, it is expected that the Chennai city would be returning to normalcy. The shoppers in Chennai are anxious now as they have been in the lockdown for several months. The re-opening of the malls has come like a breath of fresh air for the shoppers.
A shopper spoke about how she would be wearing facemask and maintaining social distancing from others. She was of the view that others might not do the same.
She threw light on how many do not follow social distancing. Point is everybody must be responsible and must follow social distancing norms etc without fail. The SOP set by the government would be followed by the mall owners. Strict sanitisation guidelines plus strict security systems would be there in the malls in Chennai.
It was brought out by Pooja Patti, centre director, Phoenix Market City and Palladium, that at a time just 13,500 people only would be let inside the mall inspite of having space to accommodate more people. For the sake of monitoring how many people would be inside the mall, an AI system would be present. Huge screens inside the mall would be reminding the customers about social distancing etc.
The retailers were of the view that the closing of the cinema halls could pose issues for the shoppers as many people come for the combination of entertainment, food and shopping etc.
There might be dip in the sales now with the closure of cinema halls. It was mentioned by a general manager of a make-up retailer in a local mall that both window and leisure shopping would go down.
