Everything has to change with time. Mysore, which was once known as pensioners’ paradise, is now transforming into another Bangalore, welcoming corporate firms, IT industries, well-known brand names etc.
As part of this transformation, very recently our city’s first mall — Mall of Mysore — opened its doors to Mysoreans. The mall has another ‘first’ to its credit by housing Shoppers Stop's very first outlet here.
Salil Nair, Customer Care Associate and Chief Operating Officer of Shoppers Stop (SS), was in city recently to train the staff and oversee the functioning of the outlet. Speaking to Star of Mysore he said, "People of Mysore and surrounding areas like Virajpet and Madikeri preferred to shop at Bangalore. From our survey, we learnt that at least 35,000 customers would come from these regions to shop there. Hence, we felt that the city was ready and opened our store here."
When asked why SS took so many years to open an outlet in Mysore given the large number of customers they have from the city, he said "There are three reasons for this: Firstly, we were not mentally prepared to come to a Tier-II city. We were not able to get an assortment suitable for this city. Secondly, since the past few years, people preferred to travel to Bangalore considering the variety available there. It is like ‘people of Pune always prefer shopping in Mumbai.’ The other reason was property. We wanted a good location and space to provide the best collection for our customers."
"This being the first mall in Mysore has an added advantage for us. The mall, with a food court, shopping facility and multiplex, provides complete shoptainment to the customers. Even though you will not come in to purchase at SS every month, you will visit the mall regularly and hence will also drop into SS. The mall and SS will complement and support each other. Hence, here 1 plus 1 equals not two but three," he said.
"Till now Mysoreans would prefer Devaraja Urs Road for all their shopping. With the opening of this mall, instead of you going to 10 shops on that stretch, you can shop for the same in one vertical. Plus it is like a complete outing for the family. You also don’t have to worry about parking space here," he added.
When asked if the shop had anything special to offer to the people of Mysore, Salil said "We have what Mysore wants. For example, in the women’s section, we have more of semi-formal, casual and home wear as compared to the Bangalore outlet where there is more formals and office wear. Secondly, the entry price is better and attractive. But the range and brands will be the same as in our other Metropolitan outlets. We will also be upgrading the store with all the higher-end brands in a year’s time."
Speaking about the response they have received here he said, "People of Mysore already know about mall culture since they have experienced it in Bangalore and other cities.
However, their yearning for a mall nearer to their home town was evident. The response we got in Bangalore around 17 years back was much lower compared to what we have seen in the past one week here. Mysoreans know well about retailing and are marching ahead at a very fast pace."
Replying to a query about the schemes at SS, he said "We have a loyalty club — First Citizen’s Club — the largest in retailing society. We have more than 27,000 customers who have been loyal to SS over the years and will be starting enrollment here very soon. Also we will launch more customer-connect programmes in the days to come. Apart from that we have a Think Green campaign. SS has a brand supporting it and a part of our collection will go into planting trees, reforestation and educating people about it. We will implement it here may be in the next six months. However, we in SS do not entertain the concept of discount. We want our customers to go through the experience of shopping, the ambiance, environment and range rather than coming just because of a discount offer."
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