The management of the mall is handled by Building Management Company (BMC) headed by its managing director Rajendra Aryal. Myrepublica.com talked with Aryal about how the mall is doing and what it has to offer to Dashain shoppers.
Excerpts:
Myrepublica.com: How many visitors are you targeting this Dashain?
Rajendra Aryal: We have a footfall of around 7,000 people on normal days and 25,000 during weekends. Our target for Dashain is to have at least 10,000 people visiting us every day. This season, we have already seen 30 percent more people on week days.
This Saturday, number of people entering our mall through the front entrance was 55,000. We did not count the people entering through the parking area. The actual figures would be higher still.
Myrepublica.com: What offers or schemes have you got to attract visitors?
Aryal: Most of our tenants have offered discounts which range from five percent to 50 percent. There is a 15 percent discount at the food court. The Big Mart grocery store conducts a lucky draw every hour and also offers surprise gifts on purchases above Rs 1,000. We have decorated this place like a bride and placed lights to make it look more alluring.
Myrepublica.com: What sets the City Center apart from other malls?
Aryal: We have planned this place carefully. The first thing that greets visitors is the cool temperature inside. Our structure and environment refreshes the visitors and is one of the anchors in our strategy to keep them here from lunch to dinner. Once they are here, we make them tour around our structure which has been designed in such a way that they can see every place. None of our shops have shutters. So when they travel through our mall, visitors have an ample opportunity to window shop.
If a visitor is here to just go to the food court, another of our anchors, s/he sees everything on offer while getting there and this should help creating a desire to buy some of that. Our multiplex will also be opening soon. This will attract more visitors, which will mean more sales of other products too. Our target is to make visitors, who come here, want to stay here and come here again and again.
Myrepublica.com: What about the shops in here? What´s your portfolio like?
Aryal: We also have a healthy tenant mix. We want people who need a shaving kit to a watch costing as much as Rs 600,000 come here. We have some of the biggest brands of the world and also locally bred brands. We take utmost care to ensure that they all maintain quality. We do not want people to question the genuineness of what they have bought here. They have to be assured about the product that they buy. So we take measures to check and ensure that.
What people need these days is quality and we have them and they fit the spending habits of all sizes of the mid-class people´s purses. The prices are very much reasonable. If you want a laptop, you can check among the competing brands here and make your decision. Our mall gives people the opportunity to see, touch and feel what they want.
We also have our food court, which we are planning to extend and are already talking with global food, doughnut and coffee chains. We already have a gaming zone for kids and one for adults will open soon. We also organize other events to entertain people from time to time.
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