<div>On a day when a swanky 40,000 sq ft mall, christened House of Technology aka HOT opened shop at the Nehru Place metro station, Businessworld did a quick round of the hundreds of small shops in the vicinity to find whether they were worried about the competition from modern retail. Especially one that plans to be open 24/7.<br /><br />Surprisingly, most shopkeepers that we spoke to appeared quite sanguine. They confidently said that the overhead costs of a swanky mall wouldn't allow retailers there to match the discounts they themselves could offer.<br /><br />“Their costs are so much more; to turn profits they will never be able to offer discounts like we do. Nehru Place runs on discounts. A person looking to invest upwards of Rs 30,000 in a laptop, if he were to get no discount will go to any mall and buy on MRP. They won’t bother coming to a mall in Nehru Place,” said a shopkeeper.<br /><br />But one factor in favour of the HOT mall possibly, is that it will remain open till about 2 AM , while the old market downs shutter at about 8.00 PM . Developers say they are in the process of getting approval for running the mall 24x7.<br /><br />“A lot of working people would like the convenience of shopping late at night or early morning. This is the demographic we want to cater to,” pointed out Vipul Jain, director, Unique Infoways, developers of HOT.<br /><br />However, the small retailers of Nehru Place continued to talk about their price advantage. Even in terms of the rentals that they have to pay-Rs 1200 per sq ft as opposed to the Rs 1600 per sq ft that the developers of Hot have to shell out.<br /><br />Yet another shopkeeper was of the opinion that the threat will happen only if the owners of the mall are able to procure goods at a cheaper price through tie-ups with parent brands. “If they aren’t able to do that, if these brands sell directly with nominal discounts on MRP, they will not make a dent at all,” he says.<br /><br />For its part, HOT has set some cool targets for itself. It expects about 12,000 footfalls daily and targets a sale of Rs 20 crore per month. The promoters said they will be hosting IT and electronics exhibitions ,new product demonstrations and brand launches at the mall.<br /><br />Already on the day of the launch, buzz was being created by brands like Lenovo, HP, Dell, HCL and others in the laptop and PC space; Samsung, Nokia, Lenovo, and Blackberry for mobile phones, Toshiba, Samsung, Panasonic and LG in the television area. Buyers looking for an option for cameras, microwaves and air conditioning units, also have a spectrum of choices.<br /> <br />A food court at the mall offers customers tantalising options of dishes - again solid competition for those weaned on the delicious street fare of the old Nehru Place market.<br /> <br />It's early days still - one will have to wait and see if both these IT hubs can co-exist in the same location without cannibalising each other's share.</div>
