After Pune, the swine flu scare is affecting footfalls and sales in malls and retail stores in Mumbai. Sales in these places have fallen by up to half in the past two days.
Though malls and retailers have not downed shutters as in Pune, footfalls in their stores have become scarce. "Last year, we had double the amount of shoppers we are seeing now. Last year, shoppers were struggling to stand here during the sale. The flu is scaring them off now,'' said a staff at Pantaloon Retail's hyperstore, Big Bazaar, at High Street Phoenix in the Lower Parel area.
Big Bazaar has started a five-day 'Mahabachat' offer from Wednesday across its 116 Big Bazaars in the country. "Hopefully, things will improve by the weekend,'' the staffer said.
But his managing director, Kishore Biyani, sounded confident. "Sales in Mumbai are down by 6-8 per cent, while in Pune they are down by around 20 per cent," he admitted in an interview with a television channel.
And said they may have to extend the sale by a day to achieve the business target. "But we are still expecting a sales of around Rs 250 crore and whatever our Wednesday's numbers suggest, we are on track," he said.
Others are equally hit by the flu scare. "In Pune, our sales are down by 40 per cent and in Mumbai, we are seeing a drop of 20 per cent. We hope this scare ends early,'' said Govind Shrikhande, chief executive of Shoppers Stop Ltd, which runs department stores and speciality formats across the country.
"We are used to walk-ins of 500-600 people in our stores during the day. Now we hardly see 200,'' said a staffer at music chain Planet M's store in Lower Parel. According to reports, other malls in the city such as Atria in Worli, Oberoi Mall in Goregaon, R City in Ghatkopar and others are seeing shoppers staying away.
Analysts said the scare will impact those retailers who have just started their season's sale or are planning to.
"The flu scare has come during a bad time, when retailers were already hit by recession. I think the coming four-five days will be bad for retailers,'' said Bappaditya Basu, associate director, retail services, at Jones Lang LaSalle Meghraj, a property consultant.
Malls such as Oberoi Mall and R City are scanning shoppers with thermal scanners, as a precautionary measure.
Image: An airport worker monitoring passengers for signs of fever walks past a health poster at Taoyuan International Airport, northern Taiwan. | Photograph: Nicky Loh/Reuters
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