People in and around Delhi shop like never before. Deepanjan Bhattacharya, 25, spent last Saturday with his friend at the swanky Select City Walk mall in South Delhi. An executive with the Barclays Bank, he spent over Rs 2,700 on a trendy shirt at the Mango store.
If he is worried about rising interest rates, sky-high inflation or the likelihood of an economic slowdown, Bhattacharya does not show it.
Bhattacharya is not alone in proving that inflation hits the poor the most. Thousands of people crowd the dozens of malls spread across the National Capital Region.
The young and the old, families, visitors from nearby villages are all trooping into malls hunting for bargains, deals on electronic items, discounts on apparel and combo-schemes for groceries.
The store owners in the malls are certainly not complaining. After all, the higher the footfalls, greater is the possibility of people actually buying something. The bargain stores are the most visited, followed by the food courts and children's entertainment facilities.
Business Standard spent last Saturday visiting five malls -- Select City Walk, Sahara Mall, MGF Metropolitan, DLF City Centre and the gargantuan Ambience Mall -- in the NCR. The conclusion of the visit is simple: If inflation and high interest rates are bothering the government and policy makers, people, at least from the middle and upper income bracket, hardly care.
Money is the new God and spending it is the closest that one gets to nirvana. These five malls together accommodate close to 1,800 showrooms and smaller kiosks that sell almost everything a consumer could want.
The number of visitors at Select City Walk averages around 2,000 on weekdays, going up to 6,000 on weekends.
Doing business is not as smooth for all players,though. A women's apparel and accessories store that opened in the MGF Metropolitan two months ago is loosing Rs 50,000 a month due to high monthly rentals.
An employee, who requested anonymity, said the store saw 30-35 walk-in customers on weekends, with around half of them actually buying something. The monthly turnover is around Rs 1,50,000.
High rentals and insufficient business have led to closure of some stores. Security guards and staffers of other showrooms at DLF City Centre claim that a number of smaller showrooms like Tuscan Verve, Maya's Toy Store and a home accessories showroom have shut down in the last few months owing to lack of consumer interest.
Food courts are doing brisk business. A group of five youngsters ate a hearty Punjabi meal for Rs 1,000 at one such place.
"The ambience of this place is cool. We ate on the terrace with a beautiful view of the whole vicinity," said Himani, who did not shop at all, but spent over five hours with her friends at the Select mall.
Swati, trying to sell an extra pre-booked ticket at PVR Cinema at the Ambience Mall, after having bunked school to watch Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na, provided the last word on inflation: "A ticket for a movie at the multiplex comes at a price my generation expects, but a combo vegetarian burger and ice tea at McDonald's comes at a price of my dad's generation".
Gen Next never had it better.