Rethabile Pitso
Over 700 000 people have visited Pioneer Mall in December alone—up from the 500 000 who came to the upmarket centre last month.
According to Pioneer Mall General Manager Thato Pekeche, the influx is largely the result of increased shopping as the Christmas and New Year’s holidays draw close, and also the variety of goods and excellent services offered by different entities at the complex.
“We have a ‘foot-count’ system which senses the number of people walking in and out of the mall. To make the system more effective, we deduct 20 percent from the total which we believe could be the mall’s workers and tenants,” she said.
Ms Pekeche emphasised while the high quality of goods sold at the mall continued to draw customers, the opening of Maseru Mall had helped draw more customers from all over the country and also South Africa.
“Contrary to expectations that Maseru Mall was going to bring competition when it was opened to the public (in 2012), it has however, contributed in bringing more business and Pioneer (opened in 2009) continues to do well as all our shops are all filled out with tenants.
“We have had more retail shops this year performing so well and more significantly, keeping up with fashion trends that people no longer find it necessary to go and do their shopping in South Africa, for instance,” she said.
Ms Pekeche also said besides the mall sponsoring social events that ultimately draw customers, food chains had also extended their closing hours to afford the customers a much more wholesome shopping experience.
“For the past two weeks, the food court has been with people up to around 11pm and restaurants like Renaissance and Ocean Basket have been opening until the wee hours during some weekends if they are hosting any special events.
“Moreover, we usually assist by sponsoring events taking place in the country through ticket sales at our designated kiosks.”
Security at the mall, she added, had been improved to ensure the safety of customers, and tenants not only during the current festive season but throughout the year.
However, Ms Pekeche appealed to parents and adults not to assist children to buy alcohol at some of the liquor outlets at the mall as the country’s laws do not allow underage drinking.
“We have observed with shock , how underage children waiting outside some of the liquor stores, are assisted by adults to buy alcohol.
“We do not condone such irresponsible behaviour and are soon going to engage the relevant authorities to ensure this does not happen here at Pioneer Mall,” she said.
