The rain held briefly on Tuesday afternoon, and shoppers stepped out in good numbers. New Market was a popular destination, because the roads were dry. Picture by Bishwarup Dutta

It’s not often that there are empty seats at Pizza Hut, at 22 Camac Street, at 7pm. Tuesday was one such day. The trademark register board outside the outlet was missing, with shoppers steering clear of the flooded mall.

“The footfall has been pretty low. Only 50 people have come in since morning,” said a Pizza Hut employee.

The scenario was not very different at other popular shop stops in the city.

“There were hardly any customers in the morning. In fact, at one point, the store was completely empty,” said Taufique Ahmed, an employee at the Camac Street outlet of Pantaloons. He had to work on his day off because a colleague could not make it to the store because of heavy rain.

“Earlier, even if it rained, people used to come in. Today the footfall was very low,” added Mithu Munshi, a senior executive at the store.

A sale is on at Westside next door, but not many dropped in on Tuesday. “Only 350 people visited us today. On a regular day, the footfall touches 3,000,” said Debdutta Chowdhury, the department manager (ladies’ wear) at Westside.

Aditya Mehta, the executive assistant to the managing director at Forum, felt that the changing work culture had contributed to the decline in the number of people who visit malls on a rainy day.

He said: “People used to skip office on a rainy day. Now, it is like any other working day. There was a 20 per cent drop in business at Forum. INOX, Forum, too, saw very average footfall.”

Saikat Mishra, a chartered accountant with Reliance Retail, echoed Mehta. “One must attend office,” he stressed, while shopping at Vardaan Market after work.

City Centre, in Salt Lake, and New Market were the top draws on Tuesday, probably because of zero waterlogging in these areas. “We’ve had very good footfall. Earning at INOX City Centre was 40 per cent above the Tuesday average,” said Subhasis Ganguli, the regional general manager of INOX.

The footfall at the malls and multiplexes dipped in the late evening after a fresh spell of very heavy rain.