RETAIL SHOPPING - THE MALL MANIA

Shopping malls, a 1990s innovation in India, changed the way the Indian middle class shops. Their success now lies in being 'shoppertainment' destinations, offering something for everyone

- BY SONAL KHETARPAL

Spencer Plaza was India's first shopping mall when it opened in 1991 on Chennai's Mount Road. Built on the 10-acre site of a late 19th century Indo-Saracenic architectural landmark—itself a department store which had some 80 shops when it first started—that had burnt to the ground in a fire in 1983, it was an instant hit with Chennaiites, as much for the glitzy shops as an escape from the torpor and heat (central air-conditioning was still a novelty). This was the country's first mega mall, a precursor to the concrete and glass, temperature-controlled transformation of Indian retail shopping that has swept through the metros and B-towns of the country.