Traffic around Kasba came to a grinding halt on the night of June 10 as all roads led to the Mega Midnight Sale presented by Acropolis Mall, in association with t2.
Sohana Sinha, 36, rushed to the mall straight after office on Saturday to avoid the crowd. She reached the mall on the Bypass-Kasba connector about 8.30pm and was taken by surprise. “I heard about the sale from my sister who lives nearby but I did not anticipate such a crowd. I am thankful that I could manage to grab a few things,” said Sohana.
A giant digital clock in the atrium began the countdown to the sale that kicked off at 9.30pm, after a 30-minute ‘get-ready’ window for the shops.
Sohana was there with her husband who was caught up in the queue at the Being Human store. “I did not anticipate this kind of a crowd. It took me till 11.30pm to finally leave for home even though we could only go to a few stores,” she said.
With over 100 brands offering discounts of up to 50 per cent, Calcuttans shopped till they almost dropped and then headed to the food court and restaurants that were also serving up exciting discounts. An acoustic set-up on the ground floor by city band Banned Frequency provided a lively background score as they belted out popular Bolly and Bengali covers.
Most shoppers made a night-out of the sale, complete with dinner at the food court, despite the serpentine queues.
Though the scheduled closing time of the sale was 12.30am, shops were forced to keep their doors open till much later as the last of the zealous shoppers continued to sift through the remaining stocks, trying to find that one last cold-shoulder top to go with their favourite pair of ripped jeans or that one last pair of shoes that matched that expensive belt.
The store recorded sales of Rs 9,00,000 sharing second spot with Jack & Jones, followed by Vero Moda and Being Human at Rs 8,00,000 each.
’Cause sisters know best! Ballygunge residents Prachi (left) and Purvi Dugar shopped from ONLY and Vero Moda, two of the crowd-pullers of the sale. As Prachi sipped on an Iced Tea from The Tea Trove, elder sis Purvi did quite some running around. “We love the MSQ (Midnight Sale @ Quest) and were looking forward to this sale at Acropolis. The collection was nice,” said Purvi, a recent pass-out of
St. Xavier’s College.
Imran Khan (extreme right) gave ‘live out of a suitcase’ a whole new meaning. “With Id around the corner, we shopped for ourselves, friends and relatives,” said the 29-year-old. Their stops? Being Human, Jack & Jones, Levi’s, UCB, Shoppers Stop and American Tourister... for the suitcase!
Ankit Bhattacharya, 22, arrived with Jagpreet Sandhu, 22, around 7pm to select and shop beforehand. But that did not help. “Trying out things was out of the question. Many people also tried to swap sizes with me but I refused. I was lucky that everything I bought fit well. I bought things from Jack & Jones, Levi’s and Being Human. My girlfriend and my mother bought things from ONLY, Vero Moda and Levi’s,” said Ankit, who left the mall four hours later, around 11pm.
Puja shopper: “This is all going to my pujo shopping haul. I am vowing to not touch any of this before Panchami… or maybe Mahalaya….”
Homemaker Sampa Dutta, 36, used shopping strategy to her vantage. “While my younger daughter Trina and I came to Little Shop, my brother-in-law and my elder daughter went to Shoppers Stop. We wanted to make the most of the sale so we parted ways inside the mall. We later had dinner at Dominos and left around 1.30am,” said mom Sampa, who picked up six frocks for her daughters.
Deepayan Bhowmick, 22, did not waste time queueing up at the trial rooms. We spotted him slipping on a bright saffron Nehru jacket. “It is never too early to start shopping for pujo, especially when there is a mega sale!” laughed the Heramba Chandra College student. “Prapti has a really good ethnic collection. I also brought a kurta in light pastel shade.”
“I had no idea about this sale and I had just come to Prapti. But when I saw the sale, I decided to take a look around. My husband [Madhusudan Das] ended up buying a few things and I bought a handbag because I couldn’t try out anything!” said teaching professional Sudakshina Ghosh.
It was a night out for GoG (gang of girls) (l-r) Debosmita Bhattacharya, Sukanya Bhattacharya and Moumita Kundu, who have never shopped without each other! “This was our first time at a midnight sale and we literally went crazy. We shopped loads from Shoppers Stop, 109°F, Baggit, Vero Moda and ONLY. Thank god for Sukanya’s place, which is near the mall, where we plan to crash for the night,” said Debosmita, an HR professional at an IT firm. #ShopTillYouDrop
Third-year MBBS student Adarsh Sagolsem squatted to take a break. “I was exhausted after the long day at the mall. My mother, sister and I went for Raabta at 6.15pm so that we could be free by the time the sale started. The three of us bought a lot from Being Human, Shoppers Stop, Vero Moda and United Colors of Benetton. We finished with a meal at the food court and got back home around 1.15am!” said the 22-year-old.
Home from Delhi for her graduation break, the sale gave Bedika Chattopadhyay, 22, the “perfect excuse to shop”. “The crowd was like pujo! I picked up a few things from Vero Moda and Fabindia. Needless to say, I couldn’t make my way to the trial rooms of any shop but luckily everything I picked up fit great!” said the recent graduate from Ashoka University, who waited outside Chili’s for 40 minutes for a meal after.
Shoppers: Anannya Sarkar and Manasi Shah
Pictures: B. Halder
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