Dubai mall profits could go up in smoke

Although the retail markets in Dubai are a great showcase for global fashion trends, they are only just starting to develop some real home-grown retail talent in the form of designers and retailers.

There is however a new trend in malls here that has hit the whole market simultaneously - it's called no-smoking.

Smoking, by default via the ubiquitous shisha, has always been part of Arabic tradition throughout the region, and by default it has therefore never been uncommon to walk side-by-side with people that are happily smoking cigarettes or cigars. Nevertheless, a recent ruling has meant that all malls are now participating in a campaign that has put an end to the possibility of smoking anything whilst walking, sitting or relaxing in the mall.

Whilst this might be a small ray of sunshine for non-smoking mall visitors there is a larger issue to consider than the simple, but long running, smoking/non-smoking battle.

The malls in the region, as well as the wider Middle East are at the very core of the Middle Eastern family's social infrastructure, and are viewed as meeting places and areas of social interaction; they are public spaces just as much as they are seen as retail spaces.

Shopping and more

The length of time that is spent in the malls is typically much longer here than it is in other parts of the world, as entertainment and leisure pursuits are often at the very core of the retail product mix in the malls.

Consequently, malls typically offer not only respite for the foot-weary in the forms of cafes and restaurants, but also places where friends and family can enjoy each others company whilst also combining the trip with a spot of shopping.

As a result, malls are neither shopping destination places, areas of entertainment, nor mere meeting places but a mixture of the three and a little bit more.

The upshot of these many and varied visit motives, is that the malls have always had a thriving community spirit as well as offering the opportunity for the coffee shops to do good business; a by product of this was the fact that the smokers were happy.

Loss of business

Although keen not to encourage smoking, the worry of this situation is that the once thriving coffee shops and cafes may well lose a large proportion of their customers and with it the possibility to continue to keep the customers in the malls for longer.

The problem here is that it is not just the cafes, coffee shops and restaurants that are suffering, but the mall as a whole, as the average length of stay in the malls will become less, as the reasons to stay shrink. Consequently, secondary or knock-on spends will diminish and vacancy rates may start to increase.

Now I agree that an increase in mall vacancy rates may be a little far fetched in terms of a knock-on effect of banning smoking in malls, however this is certainly a possibility if, for any reason the main motives or status quo to visit our malls are in any way, altered.

Any decision that has total market coverage and that potentially has such far reaching consequences, needs to have a solid and logical grounding and if possible be benchmarked against models elsewhere globally.

- The writer is head of GRMC Retail Services, Dubai.