Over a Million People Entered Shopping Malls in First Day of Reopening

* Photo: Hayati Akçay - Ordu / AA

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Hüseyin Altaş, the Chair of Shopping Malls and Investors Association (AYD), has announced that with the reopening of shopping malls amid COVID-19 pandemic on Monday (May 11), 1 million 226 thousand people entered shopping malls across the country on the first day.

Speaking to Atilla Güner from RS FM, Altaş has briefly shared the following information and figures about the issue:

"We have reopened in a controlled and cautious manner. With the excitement of the first day, there were some setbacks, but it was better today (yesterday - May 12). There were some people who wanted to enter shopping malls without a mask, but there were no problems other than that. The queues reported in the press have been reported to us as well.

"The queue before the ATMs near the shopping mall in Beylikdüzü [district of İstanbul] was depicted as the entrance of the shopping mall. While the queue of each ATM was supposed to be separate, the security personnel there made people to queue up in the same line.

"The rate of entries to shopping malls is 23 percent in total. While, normally, 6.5 million people enter shopping malls across Turkey in a day, there were 1 million 226 thousand entries on Monday. 40 percent of this figure is from İstanbul and Ankara."

Entries have dropped, shopping has increased

Hüseyin Altaş has also noted that while the number of entries to shopping malls has dropped, the rate of shopping is high:

"Customers will do pinpoint shopping, buy the things that they have in mind and leave. While the rate of entries is 23 percent, sale is almost 40 percent. The sales will not be as grave as we expect in time, but the number of entries will remain low, which is what we want.

"We want the number of entries to stay low and customers to meet only their needs during COVID-19. While 8 out of every 100 customer would do shopping in the past, we estimate that 8 out of every 10 will do now."

Concluding his remarks, Hüseyin Altaş has also addressed the ventilation systems of shopping malls: "We have told our members to use the ventilation systems in such a way to bring in the fresh air and emit the polluted air and to not use the systems for heating or cooling in such a period. It is also how the Ministry of Health wants it to be." (AS/SD)