Fun republic - Hangout destiny

                                  Fun republic – The new hang out at "Manchester of south India"(Coimbatore) for the republicans, to weave into the mall way of shopping. Kovai, the second largest city in Tamilnadu associated itself with its second mall operating since a month.  Like every mall , fun republic has a popular mix of fashion apparels, electronics and entertainment spread across four floors. The mall surprisingly doesn't contain the neon lights portraying mall identity.  As I walked into the mall on busy Sunday evening, Right away I felt something missing, undoubtedly that’s the sweet aroma, which drives your enthusiasm levels to a ride. That was missing right away. As I proceeded further I could see bunch of families heading out with bright smiles and Kids with hand full of purchases. Reached center stage of the mall and found nothing but chaos. Thanks to the advertisement activity, happening in center left part of the mall and crowd surrounding it by blocking the pathways. With poor acoustics it was like someone banging on my ears adding to the chaos. Even lighting wasn't that great.

                       Mall is still in its early days of functioning, where some stores are yet to be buzzed up. The much awaited movie screens are scheduled to open within a week adding to fun at fun republic. When I stopped some visitors for their thoughts, here is what they wanted to share.

                           Partha aged at his fifties expressed his happiness that he found a new destination to park his children on weekends who are very notorious at home. He also wished for better parking facilities. Parking here consist of three basement floors. He adds that the paths are not clearly marked and charges also quite expensive. Lighting facilities need to be taken care of at parking and emergency exits.               

                        Rajiv a teen says” am standing in the queue at McDonald’s for past 15 mins to collect a piece of burgers. Shop could have been a bit spacious and had more counters. There is no connectivity between McDonald and other outlets. All the eatery giants are in fourth floor but for McDonald’s which is in ground floor. I am a variety loving person; this arrangement limits me to stop with one’’

                           Kumar at his forties expressed his concerns that prices are not cheap as they advertised in the pamphlets. Every product has a hidden cost attached to it which leads to an expensive buy.

                      John shared his anguish at stinky toilets, which has very poor maintenance and it’s not spacious to be inside the mall. Water flow is quite low and floors are slippery which need to be looked on.

                       Shanthi at her fifties says these escalators are very unsafe for our age group. They are operated at higher speeds instead of normal speeds. I have been to airports and malls before where escalators tend to be a bit slow. They also should see all age groups before fixing up of speeds. I have been waiting for lifts in the second floor to reach fourth floor but all the lifts are jam packed and I had to wait for 5 minutes to reach fourth floor. If escalators were slow, I also could have reached destination without much congestion. Interestingly lifts don’t have fans. They have air conditioners inside but still I felt suffocated.

                                        

                                   The above are only a few who raised their concerns, many tend to evade questions.  Overall everyone was happy with a new hangout destination in their locality gearing up to take center stage after multiplex gets open. I can see many happy faces in the entire lot in comparison with few bleak ones. There were gossips saying fun republic is capable of dividing the Brook field crowd magic.