Visiting Mumbai's R-City mall after a pandemic closure

Ghatkopar's popular mall has reopened with lockdown scars

A week ago, we went to R-City mall on a Saturday for the first time after it had reopened since closing in April to comply with the state government's Mission Break the Chain orders.  R-City and other Mumbai malls could not open for six months in 2021, and these malls are now recovering from a prolonged close.

There was sparse traffic on the otherwise busy LBS Marg when we visited R-City Mall in the evening. However, at the vehicle entry point, a security guard stopped us and asked us for our vaccination status. When we told him we had completed both doses of our vaccination, he let our car in. 

The mall says that it allows only visitors who had double vaccination with the second one fifteen days before the mall visit.  However, as this may be difficult to implement at the mall, it relies on technology to screen visitors.

R-City now charges fifty rupees for car entry and parking, one of the many changes they have made this year to their operations.  We paid our parking fee, and as our car climbed the parking lamp lot, we found the mall was not allowing visitors to park at the lower levels.  The mall claims to have a QR code for online parking fee payment, but we paid in cash at the entry barrier.

Parking at R-City mall usually turns out to be like a merry-go-round drive. The lower parking levels at R-City are always full, or the parking staff directs visitors to the upper levels to reserve the parking.  However, last week, after starting a search, we soon found a parking spot in the lot behind the mall.  We noticed that the mall management has repainted the walls and freshly marked the bays and parking signs.  There were many cars but few people in the parking lot.

We made our way to the third-floor entrance from the parking and found that the mall management had also refurbished that area and improved its appearance and ambiance.  At the security gate, we walked through the metal detector frame and found that it now had a visitor counter to track the shoppers who come to the mall. In addition, you could sanitize your hands before going through the security check.

When we found a guard security using a laptop and watching it as people walked through the metal detector, I asked him and found out the mall now discreetly screened visitors for their body temperature.  The mall has thermal detection cameras at the entrance to detect people with high temperatures pass through the metal detector frame. 

The Inox theatre on the third floor was not open, which would have significantly reduced mall visitors.  The game zone, though, was available. In addition, the mall had shining tiles and decorated railings which the mall management had worked on during the long lockdown in 2021 to make the mall more attractive to shoppers.

R-City had many pandemic business casualties or stores which shut down as they could not sustain being out of business for many months. For example, we found the BBlunt salon was not open on the third floor, and the Crossword bookstore was gone.  There were many other areas having covers for stores in renovation or shut.

R-City's third floor houses the food court, which is as popular as the theater on the same floor.  Unusually, the food court dining area had few people at the tables that had many gaps between them. Thus, you could perceive the lockdown impact at the food court where just six outlets were now open and the rest either shut permanently or temporarily.

The mall had few people though we visited it on a weekend when it is popular for shopping visits.  We could not see many people come through the entrance or find anyone inside the mall's open courtyard.  Even on the mall corridors, we could see few shoppers.

We shopped first at the Bata shoe store on the first floor and found they were short of staff.  When I asked the store manager if the staff shortage was due to the mall's restrictions on staffing, he told me his team members were out for lunch and would soon return.

R City Mall in October 2021

At Bata, you could try footwear before buying it, as the fear of infection has not prevented such practice.  Bata was one of the stores with many shoppers proving the brand's utility to suit a range of prices and choices.

We then went to the Westside store on the ground to find many shoppers there.  Even before 2020, Westside was not allowing shoppers to wear and try display garments but to rely on different sized garments they stack near the trial rooms. 

However, Westside allowed people to wear the trial samples and displayed signs that said they disinfected the trial rooms frequently and steam the trial garments!

Post shopping, we went to Taco Bell for food and were happy to see that it is one of the few eateries still open after the most recent lockdown.  The S-barro pizzeria next to it was gone.  Taco Bell was offering its sampler Big Bell Box for one hundred and ninety-nine rupees and re-started offering unlimited soft drinks to its customers.  One of the practices businesses are using is to entice buyers with economic or tester items.

On this visit, we could easily get seating for eating our meal as there were few people at the food court.  In regular times, you must stand, wait, and identify tables well in advance to occupy after users have finished their meal and leave.

The mall now has a QR code ordering system that you can access at different places to order and pay online.  The eatery then intimates you when your food is ready. However, we did not use this system when we called Taco Bell, and the QR code system may be useful when the mall operates at full capacity in the future.

I could feel the high temperature inside the mall as they were complying with the government regulation to set the temperature between 26 to 30 C.

R-City now has the Reliance Retail Smart store as its anchor tenants to offer grocery and other shopping under one roof.

In the next few weeks, we can visit malls having few visitors, but with festival season approaching, mall shoppers are expected to be back in full force.