Shopper build-up likely to be slow
RETAILERS AWAIT MORE GUIDELINES FROM MALL MANAGEMENTS ON WHAT’S ALLOWED, WHAT’S NOT
Retailers expect to get a clear feel of shopper sentiments this weekend now that malls in Dubai are back to operating at full capacity.
“When they were at 30 per cent capacity and then at 70 per cent after Eid, there was an improvement in mall visitor traffic only on weekends,” said a retail industry source. “And even then, the traffic was generated primarily by the Carrefour and LuLu hypermarkets at malls.
“Single-store retailers haven’t seen much happening — we are hopeful of some improvement now that Dubai has allowed 100 per cent capacity back at malls. Over the last three weeks, single-store outlets have mostly been doing 2050 per cent of what used to be normal … mostly 20 per cent.”
Office openings
The simultaneous ramping up of office openings in Dubai would also help, especially those malls that see a fair bit of office workers visiting them during weekdays.
According to Ashish Panjabi, Chief Operating Officer at Jacky’s Retail, “As most retailers operate with two staff shifts, we initially started by reducing the working hours for each shift (which also coincided with Ramadan). Now as we are open more or less full retail hours, we have deployed both shifts and increased them back to regular working hours.”
It was on Tuesday evening that the Dubai Government sent out a directive allowing all malls and offices in the emirate to return to full operating mode.
The removal of more restrictions should in the coming days push mall traffic higher. But retailers realise there’s no point in hoping for an immediate revival of the numbers most Dubai malls have been used to in the past. The Dubai Future Foundation, a think tank, notes in its overview of the retail sector, “Post Covid-19, shoppers will return to the malls, but not at the same levels as before, as online shopping habits will have become more routine. “The current situation is not a precise indicator of the future — but certain changes to consumer shopping habits will change.”
F&B operations at malls will continue to operate with the 2 metre social distancing in place. This category could take the longest to recover.
Meanwhile, retailers say most mall owners in Dubai in are yet to offer any “useful” rent relief packages. “They have only talked about deferments during the period when malls were shut down as part of Dubai Government’s Covid-19 response measures,” said a retailer.
“Some malls have started to deposit cheques from tenants … even when retailers were told they would be given more time.“Mall owners need to show some generosity – there’s no point in telling us they feel our pain… and then do nothing to lessen it. It’s unfortunate that most mall managements refuse to see us as being equal partners in their enterprise.”