The Mall Culture

In a country like India, people traditionally shop at local markets, where vegetables are sold in one tiny shop and milk in another. Shoppers go from one store to the next, buying flowers here, chicken there. They bargain for better deals. The markets often are filthy, littered with garbage. But now it is changing. The Malls are here. They offer everything under one roof. There is central air conditioning, signs that tell people how to ride the escalators, songs blare over mall loudspeakers. People speak to each other in English instead of Hindi.

It’s a revolution that’s fast changing the way of life for millions of shopping crazy citizens in India. From the days of the small stores at the local marketplace, our cities are now metamorphosing into the land of upscale shopping centers and malls, much on the lines of Singapore and Dubai. Global estimates say India will be home to 36.2 million square feet of shopping malls in 2008 and the developers of these malls seem to have their finger on the pulse of discerning customer’s needs. That explains why special malls focusing on marriages, jewellery and on high-end brands are mushrooming all over the country. Take the example of Gurgaon, once a sleepy little suburb of the Indian Capital New Delhi. In a development that surprised many town planners, Gurgaon transformed itself overnight by first housing the headquarters of many multinational corporations and banks, and then calling itself the “shopping-mall capital of India”.

Malls are the battlegrounds where all brands – small, medium and big, the known, the not-so-well-known and the “wanna-be” ones, fight it out for the consumer’s attention. And the consumer is enjoying the variety and choice placed in front of him. The Mall culture is here to stay.