Is a there pressure for quality space, especially Tier-2 cities?
There is no pressure for space in this country. But in retail, location is always important. More important than location is the right kind of retail environment. It is very difficult today for anyone to declare that this is the best location. When we opened our Bangalore store on Magarath Road, near Football Stadium, there was not one street-light. Today that’s the densest shopping street in Bangalore. That’s in nine years. We have been going to Ludhiana for four years. My competitors have all taken properties for one lakh sq ft with 200 car parks. We have taken 2 lakh square ft with 8,000 car parks. By delaying it by three years, have we lost? Yes. But what about the next 25 years? Today, I am boasting on your recording machine that we have done a great job. But I don’t know, maybe some two million sq ft will up come tomorrow. In this country, there is no zoning. Nobody knows what can be converted into a commercial zone. Malls tend to have lower conversion rate (visitors who turn cus
