KOCHI: Late evenings in the city will don a festive look with the night shopping held as part of the Grand Kerala Shopping Festival set to begin on Monday. Shops in the city will remain open till midnight to serve customers from across the country and abroad. The event will add more colour to the spirit of tourists and shoppers who are in Kerala for the festival. “Night-shopping will add more fervour to Christmas celebrations,” said a tour operator. Merchants, businessmen and even those who run wayside eateries are looking forward to generating more sales in the coming nine days. Though the concept of night shopping is not new in the city, shopping festivals organised in the previous years did not yield the desired results.“Lack of late night transportation was one of the major reasons for this. This year, we have held discussions with associations of bus owners/operators and auto drivers to ensure transportation facility for both customers and the staff employed at various shops. It is learnt that the Corporation has decided to open additional prepaid autorickshaw counters at all major junctions to assist shoppers. We expect at least a 20-25 percent increase in sales,” said K Venkitesh Pai, president of Kerala Merchants Union.Pai added that the mindset of the people and the traders would have to change if night shopping were to flourish in the city. “We expect a great change this time”. While restaurants, textile and white goods stores expressed their willingness to be a part of the extravaganza, jewellers were the only ones to express hesitation.“Their apprehension is genuine since it is related to law and order. They fear that customers who leave the shops after buying gold will have to face a threat of being attacked. However, they have offered their cooperation for the festival,” Pai added. Kerala Chamber of Commerce and Industry chairman Deepak L Aswani said the festival would be a success this time. “We hope to bring in extra business for restaurants and textile shops. The increase in business is expected to be 20-25 per cent during the six days,” said Aswani. To ensure a greater participation from the business community, contests are also being organised for them. There will be cash prizes for ‘best decoration’, ‘best illumination’, ‘best live entertainment’ and ‘best live model’ in front of the outlets. The first prize will be `25,000 for outlets in shopping malls or shopping complexes and `10,000 for individual showrooms or retail outlets.
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