Malls and their retail merchants continue to suffer as restrictions persist.
Christopher Maglanoc, president of Ayala Malls, said malls are experiencing low foot traffic of anywhere from 50 to 60 percent of their pre- new coronavirus disease (COVID) 2019 numbers,
Maglanoc told the Go Negosyo Forum yesterday the vulnerable merchants like restaurants, salons, gyms and cinemas and entertainment, record sales of just 30 to 60 percent of their pre-COVID levels.
“We welcome the proposal to allow the customers to enter our malls freely and allow the `bakuna bubble’ concept to be implemented at the level of individual shops. So this initiative will certainly help the sectors not to mention the multiplier effect of restoring employment and further fuel consumption and other economic activities,” Maglanoc said.
The vaccine bubble, as proposed, will allow the vaccinated to avail of services in restricted sectors like restaurants, personal services among others once the National Capital Region hits 50 percent of vaccination rate of the qualified population.
Maglanoc said some merchants have hibernated the past year even if they are allowed to operate just to contain or minimize further losses.
“Merchants have had to factor in higher costs of doing business due to safety measures, higher material costs and logistic costs, heavy discounting and accumulated losses from the lockdowns,” Maglanoc added.
But he clarified the malls are fully supportive of both the government’s and the business sectors’s goal of “cautiously stimulating the economy.”
“The `bakuna bubble’ will definitely help impacted segments of the retail industry to give businesses a chance to recover and survive,” Maglanoc said.
