Ten things you didn't know about Thane’s Viviana Mall

One of the Mumbai region's biggest malls has many features waiting for your discovery

The Viviana Mall at Thane on the Eastern Express Highway (EEH) is a popular shopping and entertainment destination.  They have Tuesday Treats for food discounts and the Women's Wednesday program exclusively for ladies.  In addition, in association with Xavier's Resource Centre for the Visually Challenged (XRCVC), the mall has set up audio-tactile labeling to help differently-abled mall shoppers. The braille labels at all stores supplement the audio-tactile floor maps.  The mall similarly has braille menus and audio-tactile maps at the food court and restaurants.  Viviana is also a progressive mall with a solar panel on its roof to meet part of its lighting requirements.

As Viviana is a large mall of nearly one million square feet, shoppers are unfamiliar with its features.  To help you know Vivian Mall better, here is the Times of Urbania list of ten things you didn't know about Viviana Mall.

1. Free compost for your garden: In 2021, Viviana has not re-started this practice wherein the mall visitors could take home compost from the mall's organic waste composter plant.  As you entered the mall on the ground floor, you would find a shelf with plastic bags with dark compost that Viviana offered free to visitors.  The mall management periodically sets floral displays at the entrance and used the Valley of Flowers in January 2020, using the manure from its composting plant to grow flowers.  You can find a nice landscape with topiary (hedges in different shapes) and flowering trees and shrubs when you go behind the mall.  Most Viviana visitors don't venture into the mall's open areas with nice landscaping at the front and the back.  Do that the next time you are at Viviana!

2. The largest Bata store in India: The Viviana Bata store on the second floor has every Bata footwear and accessory brand as it is as large as multiple regular Bata stores. Its twenty thousand square foot store space offers two thousand five hundred footwear, handbag, sunglass, clutch, scarf brands. In addition, this Bata store has seating for waiting for customers and children’s play areas as it has enough space to cater to customers' shopping and entertainment needs.

3. The Himalayan Kitchen: This tiny eatery started in the Viviana Mall food court in 2021.  It offers momos in keeping with its name and makes steamed, fried, or tandoori momos with a range of sauces.  They also provide Thupka Tibetan soup and Ramen Noodles. So, if you are looking for a hygienic momo kiosk at Thane, the Himalayan Kitchen is the ideal one to choose.  It has a limited menu, but its food is unique, and you won't find such dishes anywhere else at Thane.

   

4. Two entrances: The Viviana Mall has an entry on the road that adjoins the EEH from where most people enter the mall.  The mall also has a skywalk that connects it to the opposite side of the road, which pedestrians use to reach it. In addition, Viviana has a lesser-known entrance at the back, which you can approach from near the New Horizon School or the Pokharan Road.  This back entrance has lesser traffic and gets you in and out of the mall faster than the front entrance.

5. A 4-D theatre: The Cinepolis Multiplex at Viviana has a VIP section with wide comfortable seats and waiters to serve food and beverages.  In addition, Cinepolis has a 4-D theatre that adds to the excitement of watching adventure films.  The 4-D theatre seats move, and its auditorium has the equipment to squirt water, generate odors and smoke like fog and give the feeling of the audience being in a windy place.  Yes, Cinepolis charges much higher for its 4-D theatre tickets, but the experience is unique and worth your try.

6. Two anchor tenants: Malls usually have one anchor tenant in a category.  E.g., in departmental stores, a mall may choose from among the Shoppers Stop, Lifestyle, Westside, or Globus.  However, at Viviana, they have Shoppers Stop and the Lifestyle store, both over two floors.

7. A shoe laundry: In front of the Cinepolis theatre on the second floor is a shoe laundry!  Shoe laundries are a Mumbai teenager's invention and help people refurbish and use their shoes.  There are many shoe laundries across the Mumbai region, and Glow Shoe laundry at Viviana enables you to retrieve your worn-out shoes and return them to you looking new.

   

8. Willing Auto rickshaw drivers: In a clever and shopper benefitting move, Viviana mall management rewards auto-rickshaw drivers for ferrying passengers from the location through an auto-rickshaw stand inside the mall.  Viviana tracks the number of trips a driver makes from the mall and offers them commensurate shopping rewards.  If you are in the vicinity of the Viviana Mall and need to get back to Urbania, go over to the mall's autorickshaw wait line, and you will find a certain ride.  No autorickshaw driver can refuse a fare inside Viviana Mall!

9. A loyalty program: Viviana Mall has a loyalty program for shoppers at its tenant stores.  You can access the V-club Viviana Mall loyalty program through the mall website.  After enrolment through your mobile phone number, you upload pictures of your Viviana shopping receipts to earn reward points.  You get gift vouchers to redeem your reward points and any points you may acquire by shopping at different retail stores.

10. A place to map your foot and analyze your gait: Store employees at the Asics shoe store on the second floor tell you they have no competition as they don't consider other shoe brands to be in the same category!  This Japanese brand has high-priced shoes that they sell in style.  Before the store staff recommend a pair to you, they make you run on treadmill type equipment which analyses your gait to measure pronation.  Pronation is the foot's natural inward roll as the outside part of the heel strikes the ground.  Once you know your foot better, you can choose the Asics shoe that suits you.  Yes, they do waive off the test charges if you buy their shoes!