(Continued from previous post)
The scale of the Bangalore retail revolution can be gauged by the amount of space that’s been coming up. Two years ago, the city had 14 malls of over 100,000 sq ft. Real estate consultants reckon that there will be 3.6 million sq ft of new malls by end-2007. What started out with swanky malls like Forum, has today developed into a shopping experience at par with the best in the world. Bangalore shopping is more sophisticated and is streets ahead of any other part of urban India, including Gurgaon. This is the city that has everything from giant supermarkets to a chain of neighbourhood vegetable stores and even exclusive speciality chains. No wonder it’s become a hub of retail. Forget the marble-floored malls, the department stores are as eclectic. To buy grocery, do you walk into one of the 50-odd FoodWorlds that operate here, or just order in from the FabMall next door? Is Monday 2 Sunday your best bet or good old Nilgiri’s? Stirring up the competition in this segment are the Food Bazaars being opened by Pantaloon in its usual blitzkrieg style. That’s not all. Pantaloon’s new chain of stores called Hometown will first debut in Bangalore and later be launched across the country. These stores will cater to all your home needs: furniture, lighting, plumbing, masonry and other home decor things.
For your daily vegetables and cereals, you go to Greens and Grains, an open-air store that looks straight out of a French provincial town with wooden stalls and sloping roofs. For organic vegetables and greens, there’s Namdharis Fresh and Reliance Fresh. Want to buy medicines? Walk into Health and Glow or Pill and Powder, two chains selling health and beauty products. Setting up new house? The nearest Pais, Viveks or Girias will supply you all the appliances you could ever need: from chimneys and cooking ranges to the costliest refrigerators and plasma screens. Need to look at all the brands of cellphones available in a particular category? Go to the nearest Global Access or Sangeetha store and update yourself. Want to pamper the wife? Head straight for the nearest Lush store that exclusively sells bath products.
Bangalore’s retail potential is staggering. And far from being saturated, the market is just opening up.
According to the state government, 256 new IT companies opened last year. About four IT companies are still opening every week. That means that Bangalore’s retail boom is just beginning and everyone here can shop till they drop.
The key catchment area of the malls cover Whitefield, Airport Road, KR Puram, Indiranagar, Marathahalli, AECS Layout, HRBR Layout and Sarjapur. These areas are home to a upper-middle class population that is more than willing to spend at these malls.