PICTURE SPEAK

A COMPLETE EXPERIENCE: With food courts, entertainment activities and fashion apparels at one place, malls are becoming a place to hang out at

Rajendra Bardiya, a gemstone merchant, would be an unlikely candidate for entrepreneur of the year in most places. In his home town Jaipur, though, he is quite a path-breaker. When Bardiya, 48, decided to move into the construction sector, he also chose to break away from old norms. He bought a plot of land on the city's outskirts 10 years ago and built a 2,00,000 sq ft mall. An unheard-of venture then, Gaurav Tower, named after Bardiya's son, is a Jaipur hot spot now. On a normal day, Gaurav Tower conducts business of Rs 30-35 lakh and attracts about 10,000 footfalls, its visitors doubling on the weekend. Malviya Nagar, where the mall is situated, has become one of Jaipur's most expensive localities. Within a year, a 4,00,000 sq ft mall called Crystal Palm will open in the city and give Gaurav Tower its first taste of serious competition.

Jaipur is only one place on the mall map of India. In all metros, major and minor, across the country, the shopping mall is changing lifestyles and landscapes. If the mall is undergoing a second wave of expansion and reinvention in Mumbai and Bangalore, then its arrival in cities like Visakhapatnam and Bhubaneswar has led to a rethink of established business norms. In their varying shapes, sizes and descriptions, malls promise to change the way India does shopping. At the peak of the Puja season in Kolkata this year, the alleys of the city's iconic New Market were far from crowded. There was not a single serpentine queue to be found.

MALL TRACKING

Following the footfalls of mall visitors in Jaipur and Gurgaon to find out what they spend on   PICTURE SPEAK The Pundits What do the hundreds thronging India's swish malls do? India Today went mall-tracking with a family in Jaipur and three friends in Gurgaon. The Pundits of Jaipur visit their local mall three times a month for at least two hours. On this visit, they first bought groceries worth Rs 1,200 at a supermarket called the Big Shopper. The basement kiosk market was next, where son Sukant bought a video game and the wife, Smita, some bangles. After a snack at the bakery, the family spent an hour buying clothes at Shoppers' Stop for Rs 2,800. Smita then checked out Chinese furniture shops, rejecting the quality but liking the designs. The Pundits stopped at an electronics store to inspect the latest goods, before heading for Sukant's favourite McDonald's. Finally, a check for the Salaam Namaste DVD at Planet M. In Gurgaon, the story is different: the three friends, Manan Arora, Pia Sethi and Kripa Pandit, spent four hours in the malls, mostly window-shopping. Between them they bought a single Benetton sweater for Rs 1,300 and ate dosas at Sagar for Rs 250. Their maximum time was spent at an optician's, trying out shades for 45 minutes. Kripa loved a pair of champagne pink Guccis, which were priced at Rs 12,550. She planned to return for it the following weekend-with her father.

PICTURE SPEAK

SHOP TILL YOU DROP: People like the convenience of shopping at malls

Given an alternative, Kolkata's citizenry had chosen to go elsewhere-to the mall which has turned shopping from an ordeal to an outing, and become a community hub where families congregate, entertain themselves and also buy things. Kolkata's Forum Mall, Nashik's Big Bazaar, Velocity in Indore and Mumbai's Inorbit are the flagships of India's booming mall culture. Vikas Jain, a 32-year-old garment exporter from Ludhiana, visits the newly inaugurated Ansal Plaza once in five days. "Visiting a mall has become a family outing with entertainment, shopping and eating all under one roof," he says.

TOP 5 BUSINESSES

FOOD COURTS: The way to a mall rat's loyalty is through his stomach. MULTIPLEXES: The movie-going experience is de rigueur for malls. ENTERTAINMENT: Gaming, pool, bowling keep pulling in the young. HYPERMARKETS: Giant, Shoprite and Big Bazaar, success by all names. FASHION APPAREL: Quality but economical clothing flies off shelves.

Indians seem to love the convenience of it all. In 2001, there were only three shopping malls in India. By 2007 that figure is expected to grow to 343. According to KSA Technopak's white paper on Indian retail real estate prepared with ICICI Property Services, almost 18 million sq ft of mall space will be developed across 12 major cities by 2006. On an average, a big mall, like Inorbit in Mumbai and Forum in Bangalore, draws between 40,000 and 85,000 footfalls on weekends. In a large-sized mall, shopping is transformed from a mere commercial transaction into a leisure activity.

As the awareness and share of organised retail grows, developers are rushing to keep up with the demand. By 2007, 22 new malls will be added to Mumbai's current tally of 10 operational malls, while the National Capital Region will see 18 new malls. The Indian consumer is, perhaps for the first time, king, and promoters know it.

WALLET WATCH

MUMBAI: Himanshu Parekh, IT consultant, visits the mall thrice a month, spending Rs 2,000 per visit. AHMEDABAD: Businessman Mukesh Pandya and his wife spend Rs 2,000 a month in malls. LUCKNOW: Sushil Pandey, who runs a coaching institute, spends Rs 1,500 twice a month at malls.

At Lucknow's first big mall, CitiMart in Hazratganj, Manager Kamlesh Roy says proudly, "We have succeeded in changing the mindset that Hazratganj is only for the upmarket crowd." A mall in the high street is in itself a rare phenomenon, though location remains critical, particularly in large metros.

A mall's strategy depends on its catchment area and the demographics it serves. Forum in Kolkata is located on Elgin Road, an upmarket shopping area in the middle of the city, and houses tenants like Shoppers' Stop and the INOX multiplex. Another Kolkata mall Metropolis on Eastern Metropolitan Bypass, which is chock-a-block with middle- and lower-income group housing colonies, sells itself as the inexpensive mall experience. Its biggest tenant is Big Bazaar. The big-city mall's other hook is parking. Bangalore's Garuda Mall has succeeded not only because of its stores but also because of its mega car park, which takes in 1,000 cars. Says D.G. Uday, CEO of Garuda Mall: "Consumers want a comfortable environment that offers shoppertainment-a combination of shopping and entertainment." The Phoenix Mills shopping mall in an old textile mill area in central Mumbai has proved so popular, thanks to its mix of high- and low-end brands, and options in both food and shopping, that the parking space made available initially has proved inadequate. Now shoppers weave their way past the construction site of a multi-storey car park.

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