FOOT traffic in SM malls is inching back to pre-pandemic levels, according to an executive of SM Supermalls.
Senior Vice President for SM Supermalls Bien C. Mateo told BusinessMirror in an interview on Monday that the number of customers entering SM malls is “as high as 90 percent” of the pre-pandemic level. He emphasized that “this is continuously improving.”
Despite the threat of Covid-19 surges brought about by different variants such as the Delta variant in 2021 and the Omicron variant in early 2022, SM Supermalls seem to be recovering now in terms of its foot traffic.
Now that majority of the Philippines is already placed under Alert Level 1, people have started flocking to public places such as malls.
Under Alert level 1, “all establishments, persons, or activities, are allowed to operate, work or be undertaken at full on-site or venue/seating capacity provided it is consistent with minimum public health standards,” according to the Department of Health.
When asked which malls are specifically leading the foot traffic comeback, Mateo said: “Baguio has already exceeded pre-pandemic traffic. Clark, yung mga ganyan.”
“But generally, on average, it’s about 70, 75 percent,” he added.
SM, with over 70 malls across provinces and the largest cities in the Philippines, houses not only restaurants, food court, its very own department store, and other partner-stores, but also caters to people needing government services.
In fact, it has a Government Service Express which includes several government agencies’ satellite offices in order to heed customers’ demand for easy access to government services.
In addition, SM Supermalls has just partnered on April 25 with the Anti-Red Tape authority (ARTA), to help the anti-red tape watchdog launch its public assistance desk to aid in doing business and to combat bureaucracy and red tape.
At the Monday morning signing of the agreement, Senior Vice President Mateo said SM Manila was chosen to host the first ARTA Action Center.
“We always endeavor to better serve our customers, including our members. We believe that giving them access to improve an efficient process doing business would help them bounce back stronger and we want them to be more competitive as we enable them to grow their business in our environment,” Mateo said.
Mateo expressed gratitude for ARTA’s effort to provide better government services to the people and aspiring business owners by easing the process of doing business in our country.
SM Supermalls is one of Southeast Asia’s biggest developers with over 70 malls in the Philippines and seven in China.
It has an average foot traffic of 3.5 million daily and about 5,000 tenant partners
SM Supermalls is owned by SM Prime Holdings, Inc. SM Prime is a publicly-listed company and is one of the largest integrated property developers in Southeast Asia.