Mall Culture Comes To Town

Prashant Srivastava / TNN / Nov 16, 2005, 03:21 IST

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Finally, the skyline of the City of Nawabs will be gracing its first mega mall.

LUCKNOW: Finally, the skyline of the City of Nawabs will be gracing its first mega mall. 'Sahara Ganj', which will be opening its doors to general public on November 17, makes a remarkable transition from the dominance of traditional pop-and-mom stores to numerous retail outlets to finally this mega shopping mall.
According to market analysts contacted by TOI, in the second great wave of expansion, malls have hit small town India even as they become gigantic concrete amusement parks for the middle class in metros.
These 'shoppertainment' centres are changing the way India shops and sells. The statistics they throw is again amazing.
India is going to have 343 malls by 2007 and out of these, 93 are planned for 14 major cities only, the rest of course going to the B category ones.

Lucknow has got its first one, with plans afoot for Kanpur and Allahabad. And how is a mall different from any ordinary shopping avenue?
Just sample this to get an indication: It's one concrete building which houses everything right from grocery to jewellery stores, the adds on being great food courts, gaming centres and theatres.
On any weekend in India, sixty thousand footfalls take place in any average mall. Promoters of the mall, Sahara Infrastructure and Housing, has described the sudden rise in the consumer spending owing to an upsurge of disposable income and boom in the retail sector of the city as good enough indicators for setting up the mall in the city.

"Established with the aim of bringing an international shopping entertainment and lifestyle experience to Lucknow, Sahara Ganj enables the consumer to indulge in their favourite lifestyle activities under single roof," adds chief executive officer of the company, Sushanto Roy.
For the uninitiated, this will be the first 365-days open shopping zone of the city. It will consist of finest brand outlet, which shall be the flagship stores of lifestyle brands and will stock their latest offerings with their exhaustive range.
Pantaloon, Marks and Spencer, Big Bazaar and PVR are the anchors for this mega mall. To put it simply, all that one needs to adorn one's home and self can be found here.
If shopping is not your cup of tea, you can also indulge in a host of leisure and entertainment activities, that include a four screen PVR multiplex, entertainment zone, video game parlours and various innovative retailing options.
The mega mall has been conceptualised by an interior construction firm credited with designing some of the finest hotels and resorts across the globe.
This seismic zone V (earthquake resistant) structure offers a massive atrium, spacious corridors, escalators, designer capsule lifts, kids play zone, a parking space which can house 600 cars (in covered and uncovered areas).
Come on, let's go shopping.

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