Tick tock. Tick tock.... Fireworks! A colourful Quest looked inviting and all set for MSQ — Midnight Sale at Quest. The night when shoppers slipped into their most comfy shoes because there was a lot of running and walking to do, what with the super sale at the top labels in the Syed Amir Ali Avenue mall. But in three hours?! Retail therapy at MSQ on Saturday had all the ingredients of a rocking cardio!
9.14PM
10.38PM
Escalators and elevators bursting at the seams was the order of the night. Overheard: Shopper 1: “Tum kab aaye?” Shopper 2: “I have been here since 8pm”. Shopper 1: “I came after office… aana toh tha!”
10.45PM
Homemaker Neha Goyal was there at The Loft to check out BCBG, but left with Gas jeans. This after a two-hour shop-hopping with her husband which included Michael Kors and Aeropostale. “The atmosphere is electrifying,” said Neha. Their haul was worth Rs 33,000.
11.40PM
A makeshift zone outside Spencer’s laden with food from the retail chain’s stable was buzzing even close to midnight. “You have to see the frenzy that is happening right now! For the first time we have used the mall’s atrium to put up counters here. It’s just pastries, pizza, puffs… all that we produce in-house. There is a 300 per cent growth since last MSQ,’’ said Kaushik Ganguly (below), business head, east, Spencer’s Retail.
12.30AM
The hungry tide of shoppers slumped down at the food court for some refuelling. 9pm, 10pm, 11pm, 12am… the clock may have inched towards the Cinderella hour, but the shopathon was anything but over. Snatches from a phone conversation overheard: “Aare, it’s open! Come over!” Yes, the shoppers had started prepping for edition five!
12.18AM
The remains of the night at Inc. 5. Happy shoppers and empty shelves captured the sold-out spree at its best.
PACKED TO THE RAFTERS
No matter what time of the evening it was, Lifestyle was jam-packed. The footfall? 16,000 in three hours. Wait time in the queue? One-and-a-half hours. “This year we increased our manpower just for the Midnight Sale,” said Amit Jha, business manager, Lifestyle.
Up to 50 per cent discount on iPhones, Apple watches, fancy phone covers, iPads... sounds like a steal? Well, they did sell like hot cakes!
ONLY seemed to be the only choice for 4,000 ladies who thronged the store. “We crossed Rs 10 lakh mark, which is better than last year,” said a store source.
There was a steady huddle near the Armani Exchange outlet.
Little Shop had a queue of prams with daddies guarding the babies as moms browsed for deals. A “great experience” that left Shiv Daswani, partner, Little Shop, grinning. The icing on the cake? “I have met at least 15-20 of my close friends in the mall already!”
TEST OF AGILITY
When was the last time you crawled into a shop at midnight? To ace MSQ of course! One had to slide through half-open shutters, an art many mastered, some with a little difficulty and many with a smile on their face!
FAMILY DAY OUT
A family dinner plan turned into a shopping spree for Aashna Khan (right), who stopped by Quest with her family including cousin Naina Mathur (left) and aunt Pulkit Mathur (centre). “The nine of us were scattered here and there, buying things from different stores. Good music, shopping literally in the middle of the night... I loved the whole vibe,” said the Class XII student of Modern High School for Girls.
Zeba Parvin (fourth from left) was there with her family including her sister and brother-in-law, who were visiting from Bangladesh. “We didn’t know this was happening. We came here for Eid shopping and have picked up jeans, kurti, toys and jewellery,” she said.
Prachi Gupta was there with husband Sandeep and her parents Sushil and Kavita Goel. The four went home with clothes, handbags and toys.
FOR MOMMY
Pooja Barmecha had landed up at Coach for her mother’s birthday present. “I am planning to buy two bags!” said the 23-year-old.
HE FOR SHE
Arka Chatterjee came as girlfriend Joyita Dey’s “support system”. How many points does he get for that? “He gets a lot of love,” said Joyita, who shopped from Forever New, Aeropostale, ONLY and The Body Shop.
Saurav Agarwal was put in the Michael Kors queue by his wife. And the businessman still had a smile on his face.
Abir Mukherjee had been holding on to two bags for wife Debapriya at Forever New for 15-20 minutes when t2 met him. “I am the one who selects for her. She has gone to try a few dresses,” he smiled.
“MSQ is not just about shopping but also about the experience. We want to make it a calendar event for the city, something that the entire city should be proud about. People look forward to it. It becomes a place for social congregation. This is the fourth year and it is growing bigger and bigger. More and more shops are joining in. There is a connect. We have clocked the highest MSQ revenue so far. We want to make Quest a part of your life and I think we have been successful in doing that. Like always, we would like to thank the police as well as fire brigade for helping and ensuring smooth operations at Quest,” said Dilip Sen, MD, Quest Properties India.
Text: Saionee Chakraborty & Nandini Ganguly
Pictures: Rashbehari Das & B. Halder
