Suppose shopping centers could think. While they are certainly likely capable of imagining hoards of cash, malls all over China in recent days must be contemplating whether this year is the final Noel, with not one stocking filled, not one carol sung.
As a means to quantify the scale of the “stay home” this festive season, The Nanjinger yesterday, 22 December, popped down to Kingmo in our city’s Jiangning District around lunchtime.
Normally, this mecca to consumerism is busy from opening to closing, but as we made a beeline for the lift from the underground car park, there was an omen this was not going to be the case today; the interminable wait for the lift had become a thing of the past.
A lone lad with short hair dyed white was spotted as the sole employee present in Sephora. Elsewhere in the mall, with no customers, other staff had emerged from their shops to chat with security guards.
Outside, the new Baker & Spice now occupying the spot vacated by bankrupt Element Fresh, together with Blue Frog, had decided it wasn’t even worth opening their doors.
Finally, though, there was life. Organic life. On B1, a respectably-sized crowd jostled and queued for an enticing promotion being run by the Modern China Tea Shop.
But everywhere else, as a cover version of Wham!’s perennial festive favourite boomed out from the mall’s public address system, the overriding sense was that this could indeed be the Last Christmas.