Sales have dropped drastically at the Apapa Mall, Lagos. This is a sharp contrast to its record two years ago, when it was opened. Then retailers jostled for spaces. Shop owners and customers blame the problem on the gridlock in the area, TONIA ‘DIYAN reports.
Apapa mall situated at Park lane in Apapa-Lagos, means different things to different people. For the high and middle class, it presents an ideal shopping rendevouz, while for the lowly placed, it is an opportunity to get into a life of comfort, including an avenue to experience a good ambience money can provide.
The mall is managed by Top Services Limited, owners of Adeniran Ogunsanya Shopping Mall (AOSM) in Surulere-Lagos and Cocoa Mall in Ibadan, Oyo State.
The percentage of the mall’s space occupied by top brands, which was forecast to increase yearly has decreased drastically no thanks to the frustrating traffic gridlock on Apapa Road. The ultra-modern retail centre used to offer its tenants an ideal platform to showcase their products to shoppers, create awareness for their brands, and take advantage of the tenant mix to compete with international brands now settling in Nigeria markets.
Apapa Mall, which was once a home to departmental stores, is deserted because of the perennial traffic gridlock on the Apapa Road.
The steady drumbeat of store closings is like a death knell for the mall, a source lamented.
The Nation Shopping observed that more than half of the shops in the mall have closed. Even the Cinemas have left. Only few shops are remaining. Residents lay the cause on the bad road, which has been neglected over the past two decades, and now has become nightmarish, for mall owners and commuters. The incessant gridlock has brought economic and other activities in Apapa to a standtstill, besides inflicting untold hardship on residents.
With the daily intense economic activities going on in Apapa, and tankers, trucks, trailers and lorries arriving the area for evacuation of goods for delivery to other parts of the country, the road is not helping matters.
No fewer than 1,000 trucks ply Lagos daily to lift petroleum products to various parts of the country, thereby leading to chaos.
A shop owner in the mall, Mrs Omoshalewa Ogunleye, who sells home appliances, such as bathroom, dining, kitchen, laundry machine, storage and interior decoration, said moving out of the mall is the best thing that happened to her dying business.
With mall vacancy rate at 35 percent, she said her business had been suffering. Before moving into the mall, Mrs Ogunleye had listened to experts, who provided answers to her questions. They included: Would the mall offer the best sales volume potential for my kind of products? Can I produce the appeal that will make customers come to my store? Can I deal with the competition of other stores within the mall? How much space do I need to handle the sales volume I expect to have? Where do I need the space (location within the mall)?
Few years later, it turned out that the experts did not take the effect the road would have on businesses into consideration.
Yet, home appliances’ shops are not the only losers at the mall. Cinema houses planned to provide entertainment have moved just as clothing stores have also jumped boat.
For start-ups eyeing the mall, the issue would not be to raise funds to be in the mall, it will rather be to experience huge foot traffic and make profit. Even top brands with the financial war chest are leaving the mall.
The Nation Shopping found out that most of the tenants in these stores no longer generate reasonable rate of returns on such investment and are being forced to quit staying in the cozy building.
It is, however, not phenomenon as some tenants continue to report good returns on their investment as the lease renewal factor in some malls say it all.
But Mr Ini Archibong, Public Relations Officer, Chastest Consult Limited, the firm in charge of Shoprite, said: “I am not aware of stores leaving the mall as a result of the gridlock in the area, but again Shoprite has no plans to exit mall; instead there are plans to open more stores in Lagos and the country as a whole. What matters most to Shoprite is to offer a world-class shopping experience to its customers with lower prices you can always trust.”
According to our source, additional department stores will soon be empty. He, however, said the reason for the trend is the heavy traffic.
Unlike other places, owners of the mall lament the low demand for retail space as human traffic remains low and sales dropping daily. They say no brands want to move in. They move out daily instead. According to them, 99 per cent of tenants have terminated their lease agreement in the mall.
“We’re no longer experiencing demand from grocery stores, cinemas, innovative entertainment venues, the fitness centre and others.
“As an owner of retail real estate, we must evolve as it is in our leasing and the evolution of our tenant roster. Mall tenants have an emotional connection with their customers. Thus, they stay in malls where they are profitable, operating from, a source said.
He however attributed the cause of the problem to the heavy traffic. He argued that brands that have left the malls were those that did not meet customers’ needs on price, variety, type and size of merchandise.
