new delhi every year the weekend before dussehra and durga puja kickstarts the eagerly awaited golden period of retail shopping that gladdens mall store owners till midjanuary each outlet looks forward to high sales during this time this year though the covid19 pandemic had thrown all projections and preparations awry and the poor turnout even after the malls were allowed to open did not enthuse sellers until recentlynow call it covid fatigue better awareness about how to beat the virus or belief in the safety measures adopted by retail establishments perhaps even the hint of winter in the air people are back and mall operators shops and food outlets are cautiously optimistic from staring at a complete washout footfall and sales are close to 60 of october 2019s numbers and if all goes well and the spread of infection remains under control they may end the quarter at almost 75 of same period last yearyogeshwar sharma executive director ceo select citywalk reported 30000 visitors over the weekends these days around 60 of the football in normal times he said the mood was upbeat and most mall tenants are looking at the coming quarter with a lot of hope and positivity an official from ambience mall confirmed that footfall there woo was increasing by the weekin a similar optimistic vein pushpa bector executive director dlf retail said that while the number of buyers is around 40 of what it was at the same time last year most malls in the chain have seen spend per footfall go up almost 180 she observed that international and luxury premium brands were logging their usual festive numbers and fb outlets had also touched 50 of normal sales after alcohol was permitted to be served if these encouraging trends continue we expect to reach 70 of last years festival sales said bectorabhishek bansal of pacific malls also had similar numbers to report for this his enterprises in tagore garden ghaziabad and dwarka october might end after recording 60 of last years performance and in fact with cinema attendance increasing he was hopeful of clocking 75 buoyed by the numbers the pacific malls have special dcor for the season such as a large replica of the ram temple planned at ayodhya for a festive feelsharma and his ilk have also observed a change in shopping pattern in that there are more focused shoppers now than the floater crowd and the average time spent at the mall by each visitor has halved to an hour from two hours earlier electronics beauty and athleisure are performing well though gifting and formal or occasiondriven wear are sluggish food takeaway is also doing better than expected in most malls most mall owners have asked their brand retailers to pass on any price benefits to consumers to incentivise their visits to the malls sharma opined that more than ever there is now the need for price parity with online portals he felt that people having their favourite brands