Smriti Saraff (left) entered the mall at 6.30pm and made a beeline for her “favourite store” Forever New. “They informed me that there would be great discounts so my sister-in-law Megha and I selected whatever we wanted and then went back at 8.30pm and billed it,” said the homemaker, who also shopped at Eske, Furla, GKB Opticals and Puma.
A display of fireworks in front of the 33 Syed Amir Ali Avenue mall marked the explosive start of the
three-hour-long Midnight Summers @ Quest.
Midnight Summers @ Quest officially commenced at 9pm and half-an-hour later, the cash counter at Vero Moda had shoppers jostling for space. As it grew, it took an average shopper standing in line close to 45 minutes to reach the cash counter.
Claire’s is every girl’s must-stop shop. So when their range of accessories went on sale, it was no surprise that the queue took up most of the store and a section of the corridor outside. Which is exactly the sight that greeted us at 10pm. “I’d come to pick up an iPhone 6 cover, but I guess they’ve run out of it. So I’m picking up a pair of mirror-effect sunglasses instead,” said Aakriti Singh (inset), who then had to stand in line for 30 minutes to bill it.
Crowd control was becoming quite a task as shops werejam-packed with excited shoppers who showed no signs of slowing down. Fashion store ONLY resorted to pulling half its shutter down to at least make sure the die-hard shopper had to stoop to conquer.
As the clock struck midnight, and the sale was brought to an end, the stores looked empty — simply because they’d been wiped clean by eager shoppers. DKNY (left) called it a night with near-empty counters and a “CLOSED for the day, thank you” sign. As did (above) Wills Lifestyle.
Lugging huge bags behind them, shoppers exited the mall well past midnight, many of them wondering when a repeat show at Quest would be! Well, until next time...
FIGURE IT OUT!
Footfall: 1,10,000 in three hours, thrice more than a normal day.
Total sales: Rs 2.5 crore in three hours, double of a normal day.
Cars: The entire parking of 1,000 spots was occupied. Some store owners had to park their cars a
20-minute walk away from the mall. Yes, the shoppers beat them to the night show.
Vero Moda: Almost every second shopper was spotted with a Vero Moda bag. The cash register at the womenswear store pinged in around Rs 13,00,000 on Friday.
Benetton: Till 9.30pm, sales were around Rs 80,000. After that, the sales shot up, up and up, ending the night around Rs 5,90,000.
Levi’s: The ‘Buy 2, Get 2’ offer resulted in sales of around Rs 2,50,000 by midnight. “The sales were thrice the number compared to a regular Friday,” said the person behind the billing counter.
Claire’s: Little girlies can shop too! Claire’s upped its daily sales by around Rs 2,11,000 during the three magic hours.
Little Shop: Sales were four times more than any given Friday, said partner Shiv Daswani.
Food court: Last Friday, the billing clocked Rs 1,68,000 (approx). This time, there was “around a 25 per cent increase” thanks to hungry night shoppers.
Au Bon Pain: “There was an increased sale of Rs 10-15,000 in the three-hour extension,” said the man behind the counter.
Chili’s: Thirty per cent increase in sales compared to a regular Friday.
Types of shoppers
