Pantaloon to open biggest Big Bazaar outlet

Pantaloon Retail (India) Limited will soon be opening its second Big Bazaar outlet in city. Spread over 1.2 lakh square feet, the outlet, expected to open before Dasara, will be one of the biggest that the retailing major has in the country.

The outlet will come up in the swanky Poonam Mall complex which already houses Central India's first multiplex, Inox.

The complex will soon have a huge roof-top garden restaurant, the region's biggest bookstore and biggest entertainment zone, the first bowling alley, and Rajdhani Thali, the ethnic food joint that has all of Mumbai drooling. The employment generation potential even by most conservative estimates, has been pegged at 1,000.

According to Maneesh Gupta, store manager, Big Bazaar, the second outlet will have five floors (ground plus four) and will come up as part of the Poonam Mall at Wardhaman Nagar. The existing outlet covers 60,000 square feet and is located in the heart of the city at Ramdaspeth.

Gupta said that some innovative retailing formats, never tried before in the country, would be witnessed at the new outlet.

The store will have a live kitchen, a restaurant, a gymnasium, an entertainment hub and a saloon, besides the usual shop-in-shop counters. This would be the 32nd Big Bazaar outlet in the country and will soon be followed by another outlet which is to come up at Nashik.

The store will add buzz to a new area of the city. Wardhaman Nagar in east Nagpur is next to the business district of Itwari and is generally a residential area of the business class. Constructed by N Kumar Group, noted property developers and builders, Poonam Mall will be promoted as a "full day family outing place".

A movie, a snack, shopping for anything, including weddings, gaming, having a hearty meal and then browsing in the bookstore or on the Net is all going to be possible at the swanky mall. What's more, there are going to be several choices for doing any or all of these things.

Poonam Mall covers over two lakh square feet but some sharp designing gives the appearance of still more. The roof-top garden restaurant will be spread over 35,000 square feet. "The roof-top garden restaurant will be operated by a group company," said Anil Kumar, director of N Kumar Group.

Such a huge complex would require more parking area than any other building in the city and traffic management would require more than available expertise, he said.