SubCon replied on Friday, May 20, 2016 05:53 AM
While I respect CMY's opinion, I tend to feel that most people are unable to see beyond 15 years. Yes commercial will still be a very prized commodity but it will decline at some point simply because all over the world, the retail experience is moving from physical shops to virtual (online) shops for everything from clothes to basic groceries to banks! People who are in their 40s now are perfectly capable of using technology. The stigma that Pakistan is somewhat different is incorrect. When mobile phone connections were made available to common public in late 90s early 2000, everyone thought it will be too expensive for "common man". Today, you see the picture.
I do not think commercial activity in 20 years will be nearly close to what it is today. The only place I see commercial will still be valid is restaurants and perhaps a select stores. Physical banks will vanish and so will many grocery chains. There is a reason why big malls like Fotrus square and Emporium are moving away from convential malls like Pace and making retail more of an "outing" with cinemas, playlands, foodcourts being the major attraction for these malls rather than commercial activity. The idea is to lure people in for these activities and then they "may" end up shopping. If you carefully assess the design of Fotress square mall, they walk you through all of the commercial shops before you land up in the cinema. That is for tactical reasons.
In many of the developed retail outlets in Lahore, some known brands are already struggling to get enough customers. This will only get worse with time. Where 100s of commercials fit into this picture in the long term is something which should be assessed. I am not saying commercial is not good. I am saying that in 15/20 years or even earlier, the need more commercial could reduce dramatically with large scale malls or online retail being a preference. |
