Retail Dude

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The Dubai Mall

Welcome to World’s new largest mall – The Dubai Mall, outnumbering the previous largest mall “South china Mall”, Dongguan, China with approx. 5 million sq ft. And if you are in a mood to say “Size doesn’t matter” then I have something more to tell you about this flagship shopping mall by Emaar Malls Group.  The Dubai Mall will have over 1,200 retail outlets and 160 food & beverage outlets spread over a gross leasable area of 3.77 million sq ft. Over 165 retailers – or 30% of the mall’s total gross leasable area is dedicated to new retailers to the region, or brands opening up standalone stores for the first time. The mall is an integral component of Downtown Burj Dubai, a 500-acre mixed-use development anchored by the iconic Burj Dubai, the world’s tallest building.

Amongst other world-class attractions at the mall are-

·         SEGA Republic®, an indoor theme park

·         KidZania®, a unique children’s ‘edu-tainment’ concept

·         The Grove, an open air streetscape with fully retractable roof and a 22-screen Cineplex

·         world’s largest gold souk

·         the 850,000 ft² Fashion Island

·         one of the world’s largest aquariums

·         an Olympic-sized ice skating rink

·         Oasis Fountain Waterfall

·         WaterFront Atrium

·         a view of the (soon to be completed) world’s tallest building, Burj Dubai

The Dubai Mall has confirmed its two department stores Galeries Lafayette and Bloomingdale’s, both making their regional debut. There are over 14,000 undercover car park spaces across three car parks and an adjoining luxury 5-star hotel – The Address, Dubai Mall - with 250 rooms and 450 serviced residences.

The mall has already won five awards. It won two awards at the Retail Future Project Awards at MAPIC, Cannes, in 2004, for Best Retail Development Scheme (Large), Best Use of Lighting in a Retail Environment. And the Dubai Mall brochure has won three awards at the Summit Creative Awards 2005, in Portland, Oregon; Gold award for Best Art Direction / Graphic Design, Silver award for Best 4-colour B2B Brochure, and Judges Special Recognition award.

The Dubai Mall will open doors to the public on Tuesday, 4 November at 2pm(Local Time). The opening of The Dubai Mall marks the largest-ever opening of a shopping mall in the world in terms of retail offer. The mall will have smooth and easy access from Sheikh Zayed Road, off Financial Street Road (previously Doha Road), Emaar Boulevard, Downtown Burj Dubai and through the newly opened bridge off Interchange One. Opening attractions at The Dubai Mall include over 600 retail outlets including Waitrose, Hamleys and Kinokuniya Books; Dubai Aquarium & Discovery Centre that has been awarded the Guinness World record for the ‘World’s Largest Acrylic Panel’ and featuring a 270-degree walkthrough tunnel.

-Prateek Katiyar

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Malls have always faced the problem of more browsers than buyers, but in the first of it’s kind report, more retailers are pulling out of malls for the want of sufficient footfalls. As seen historically any store in the mall gets a conversion of around 18-30% depending on it’s location and accessibility within the mall. And, if the mall is not able to attract large number of footfalls, any retailer would find it hard to earn enough to match the rising rentals along with the cost of operating the store. With little or no support from the mall developers in marketing the store this has become a spiraling problem for not only the large houses but even the smaller ones.

Another area which the article brings to light is the lack of understanding an imperative (from a retailer’s point of view) concept of “tenant mix”. The term simply connotes the mix of retailers who are present in a particular mall. It is palpable that in a single mall the kind of retailers should similar to each other, in terms of their price points, demography of their target segment and in some cases the merchandise on offer (eg. Gold Souk in Gurgaon). But, as retail professional I can only feel sorry for those retailers whose professionals fail to analyze these considerations before they zero-in on a particular mall.

Well, one of the recent examples is happening right now in my city, Dehradun. Looking at the tenant mix of the mall (one of the first) one can only wonder - Would a brand such as UCB, Reebok and Big Bazaar, be able to generate similar kind of revenue operating out of the same mall? If you ask me I’m more than dubious. Though, the company would have done the indispensable study of the catchment and the competitors but still the point that they missed out was the understanding the majority of customers who would visit the mall, considering that it’s anchor tenant is Big Bazaar.

Like a ubiquitous silver lining, there a lesson in this whole episode too. It’s time for smaller retailers, who are bent on following footsteps of their larger and more established counterparts, to step back and think again. It is crucial to decide on any location only after asking oneself a simple question –Would my target customers be comfortable to shop at the selected location and subsequently, would they return to the store every now and then?

-  Vivin

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You must be wondering that what I mean by Astrology Mall. But let me correct you that you are thinking on the right line. Yes it’s a mall specialized in astrology. Soon Bangalore will have supermarkets that will house astrologers, numerologists, palmists, tarot-card readers, horoscope specialists - all under one roof. It is first of its kind in the country or perhaps world. So, if you want to know your future, you just need to step in this super market and know all predictions. Bangalore gonna have 10 such outlets called ‘Star & Planet’ and they will be carrying astro-related materials like Rudraksha beads, gems and stones, yantras, puja materials and books relating to astrology.

“It is not just about fortune telling. If an astrologer suggests a puja, the supermarket will arrange it for you. The concept is like a multispeciality hospital where all specialists are available under one roof”, says promoter Ramesh Tulsian.

One of the toughest challenges in success of a format like this is the authenticity and precision level of the fortune tellers which it will be housing. In order to deal with it, promoters have decided that they will select them based on a written test and an interview. They will have to face an expert panel in order to set up shop in supermarket.

So, with this New Service Development (NSD), we have a scope of another academic course i.e. Future and Fortune Management

- Rajeev Damani

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