3 Idiots starring Aamir Khan, R Madhavan, Sharman Joshi and Kareena Kapoor, has not only given audiences the chance to see good cinema, it has boosted sales at the city’s multiplexes and malls. In fact, business was well above expectation in the four-day period ending on Sunday. With Christmas vacations on, in addition to holidays in some corporates and all government offices, the malls and multiplexes were overflowing with potential customers from all walks of life.
According to industry sources, most of the retailers had footfalls numbering in lakhs and the conversion rate was close to 50%. Compared to last year and the same time, the malls had a growth of about 19%. Christmas apparently blew away the recession blues from the Ahmedabad market.
GM of Himalaya Mall, Anshu Mathur told DNA: “We had 80,000 footfalls from Thursday till Sunday. As per my observation, there was conversation of about 50 per cent into sales.”
The major buying was in children’s goods, apparels and food. One of the major crowd-pullers was the popular movie 3 Idiots. The crowds that didn’t get tickets for the movie, chose to shop instead”, added Mathur. Along with the Bollywood factor the malls witnessed many NRI customers who usually visit India this season.
Iscon Mall manager Akashdeep Singh told DNA: “We had maximum sales in kidswear. In this season we get many NRG and NRI customers and they were there again.” Singh said that they noted footfalls of around 1.75 lakh in the four days of which 40 per cent were converted into sales.
10 Acres Mall in Raipur area did good business, because of the Kankaria Carnival. The mall’s GM Indranil Banerji said: “We benefited as some of the Carnival crowd stepped into our mall and many of them bought goods. As ‘3- Idiots’ is running in the complex, the filmy factor played its role. “We got close to 18 per cent more business than last year,” a shop source said. Malls have stepped up promotional offers to keep the party spirit high. Niral Shah of Dev Dev Arc Mall said: “We have been organising entertainment activities to attract crowds. We have also proposed a DJ party on December 31.”
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