Covid-19 outbreak: Malls, restaurants continue to battle loneliness

Consumption across malls and restaurants across the country has fallen 15-25% over the last two weeks since the novel coronavirus spread in India with people cutting back on eating out and shopping in malls, industry officials said.

“Consumers are avoiding crowded places… We have seen a sales dip of 15-20% sequentially, over the past couple of weeks,” said Samir Menon, managing director at KFC India.

Industry executives cited a spiralling impact from cancellation of international delegations, board meetings, social gatherings and Holi parties.

“People are not going out for social gatherings,” said Zorawar Kalra, promoter of Massive Restaurants that operates fine dining restaurant chains such as Farzi Cafe and Masala Library. “Our biggest competition is now the consumer’s home.”

India on Monday reported four more positive cases of Covid-19, taking the overall number of patients to 44. The health ministry has asked states to form early rapid action teams to deal with the virus outbreak. New cases have been reported from Delhi-NCR, Uttar Pradesh, Kerala and Jammu & Kashmir.

Malls and cinema theatres reported drop in numbers across cities where Covid-19 cases have been reported. Officials at Pacific Mall and Vegas Mall in Delhi-NCR said sales are down 10-20%.

“People are cautious and rightly so,” said Harsh Vardhan Bansal, head of Unity Group that operates Vegas and Unity malls in Delhi-NCR. Pacific Mall executive director Abhishek Bansal said traffic “has been slow over the past 15-20 days”.

Many executives expressed hope that their sales will get back to normal in about a month. “We expect this to be a temporary phenomenon and sales to return back to normal once the summer sets in,” said Kalra of Massive Restaurants that also owns KODE and Made In Punjab restaurant chains. “For now, however, the impact is not just in India but across our brands in the seven countries we operate in.”

Harkirat Singh, managing director of footwear chain Woodland, said footfalls are down by 20-25% mainly in north India. “Footfalls are down because people are being cautious and avoiding going to crowded places,” he said. “A bit of that is hype, but when it comes to safety it is important to be careful. Even though it is temporary, it will take time to subside.”

Fine dining chain Cafe Delhi Heights cofounder Sharad Batra said March is anyway a slow month since children have their exams. “We are hopeful that sales will revive soon and that this is temporary,” he said.

Even while companies say they are accelerating all best practices to quell consumer apprehensions, including heightened sanitisation and temperature mapping of guests, a report by Bloomberg said the new coronavirus epidemic could cost the global economy $2.7 trillion.

David Gibbs, global chief executive of Kentucky-based Yum Brands Inc that operates restaurant chains such as KFC , Pizza Hut and Taco Bell, had in a post-earnings call last month said the company’s 2020 results were likely to fall short of its long-term outlook, weighed down by the Covid-19 outbreak in China, its biggest market.

KFC India, one of the country’s biggest fast food chains with 400 outlets, had reported 23% system sales growth for the quarter ended December 2019.

Source:- Economic Times

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