Before I moved to Mumbai, Ansal Plaza was the only mall that we frequented over weekends. It was surely one of the most happening place, that too in south Delhi.

And then we had select city – as well as malls in Vasant Kunj – With these happening malls, Ansal Plaza lost its charm and people forgot this place. The other malls were bigger and had lot more to offer! 

Ansal was definitely our favourite shopping place and Shopper’s Stop was where we would spend hours either shopping or just be there. With other malls opening up, we too moved to different brands and stopped going to this place.

Over the years this place has been deserted and looks more like haunted. More so as few shops had to shut down and it was a catch 22 as people stopped going to ansal and business didn’t flourish as they had less buyers. It was a lost race with lot of new malls opening and business slowing down.

The new malls of South Delhi had better designs and better facilities too. One of the main reason that Ansal Plaza lost the race was lack of multiplex. Every mall in Delhi offers multiplex and areas where people can easily walk, chat and sit.

Another interesting observation over couple of months is that though malls were always very crowded, the restaurants in the malls didn’t have a great footfall.

Now I have been reading that Ansal Plaza is bouncing back and will be back with a bang. I have my own apprehensions on this:.

  1. More like CP or HKV, this place will be more like a  drinking hole, as that is what new openings will bring in. Security will turn out to be an issue.
  2. With no other entertainment, getting back footfall will be the biggest challenge.
  3. Mismanaged parking – as this pace has the worst parking management and if we have more crowd, it will be difficult to manage the parking slots.
  4. Restaurants surviving in malls is another challenge. I have been following development of most of the malls over the past 6-7 months. There are hardly any good restaurants except a few as they don’t survive or else shut down like indigo deli.  Hence, even if there are number of restaurants that would open up at Ansal , survival and getting footfall will continue to be the biggest concern
  5. Food courts continue to be the place where people flock. It is one stop place where you can get variety and stuff yourself while shopping. People aren’t interested in gourmet affair, right after shopping or movie – food court is the quickest and the best resort. Food courts are always buzzing on weekends and restaurants have less customers. It gets worst on weekdays when it’s almost empty.

I will be interested to know your thoughts too!

 

#UrbanInitiative – Beyond Food

This story is part of our new initiative called #UrbanInitiative – Beyond Food where we will be focussing on areas that requires improvement and bring out stories that are important and desirable for elevating the entire F&B industry.

 

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