What do the sprawling shopping malls in Lahore, Karachi, Peshawar, and Islamabad have in common? Among other things, they are certainly raising the consumers’ appetite for shopping. The sheer expanse of the malls, the number of brands on offer under one roof, the atmosphere, the panache -- all these combine to make a complete shopping package that the city consumers cannot get enough of.

While big shopping malls have been there in Pakistan since the 1990s, it is only recently that we have seen such mega projects as the Emporium Mall and Packages Mall in Lahore. Karachi, the country’s commercial hub, made a headstart with big mall culture with Park Towers in the early 2000s, followed by Dolmen, Lucky One and others.

In Lahore, it seems Pace set the pace for more such shopping malls in 1995. Among the notable ones that came up before the mega ones there is Gulberg Galleria, with its beautiful architecture defying the usual dullness of mall architecture.

So, what brings about this recent culture of mega malls from Karachi to Peshawar?

"It’s a whole different experience for the consumer," claims Muhammad Junaid, Customer Service Officer at Hyperstar, Lahore. "Excitement," -- he sums it up in one word. "You have got a huge quantity of various products as well as quality. And, above all, you also get discount on certain products. People come here even from adjacent cities," he informs.

Farhat Fatima, a working woman who lives in Gulistan-e-Jauhar Karachi, says she prefers to go to Imtiaz Super Market or Hyperstar for two reasons: "The first is the satisfaction that you’re buying good quality products because you are not sure if small retail stores in the neighbourhood give you that." The second factor is "the enjoyment and relaxation in shopping; you enjoy the ambiance of the place and you are not worried about parking your car because they have ample space for that."

"This is another way of doing business. And because of that the customer’s taste has improved," says Almas Hyder, a businessman and former senior vice president Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

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Comparing how the trend of huge shopping malls is on the way out in the West but it is picking up in Pakistan, he points out, "In the West, the trend is on the way out because the consumers are opting for online shopping. The same will happen here when our volume of online shopping increases," he says. "And I don’t think these shopping malls offer any major discount. Whatever discount they offer is keeping in mind the market."

"For Karachiites, Imtiaz Super Market and CSD (Canteen Stores Department) were the departmental stores in the early 1990s for shopping of daily use items at discounted prices but then Makro Habib came up in the early 2000s as a dedicated Super Mall with a lot of space for parking, and offering every type of item -- from grocery to electronics," says Shujauddin Qureshi, a social activist based in Karachi.

Since then a new shopping trend has emerged. "The concept of wholesale-cum-retail departmental stores was followed by Metro, Chase Up, etc.," he adds. These huge department stores have attracted not only the elite but also the middle class who buy items of daily use, including grocery and food from there. They usually throng to these shopping malls during the first 10-days of the month," he says.

Besides offering an attractive shopping environment, "these malls provide entertainment to the visitors with additional attractions like cinemas, food courts, and children’s play areas," says Fatima.

The shopping malls have certainly changed people’s lives in more than one ways. "The shopping experience in the malls in Khyber Pakhtukhwa has tremendously changed our lives in many ways," says Eiman Jamil, an English language training consultant based in Peshawar. "Shopping in the malls saves time for working ladies; it spares us from sexual harassment as the places are not very crowded," she says, adding, "These malls have also given men of KP a sense of opting for brands too. Visiting a Mall on a daily basis for window shopping after office hours or college is also an emerging trend among youngsters."

"Nevertheless, they have increased our appetite for spending as the local brands: Khasdi, Nishat, Gul Amhed, etc, are open in almost all the shopping malls in KP," she says.

"The similarly themed products we saw in old-style markets, such as Lahore’s Liberty or Main Market in the 1980s and 90s made it such a boring chore, going from one shop to another in search of one article. Or so it seems now. Today, it has all changed for the better," says Kahkashan Farooq, an editor and a shopping enthusiast based in Lahore.

"Sellers and marketers realised early on that the easier it is for a buyer to access a product, the easier it will be for them to put their hand in his pocket to pay. So we saw thematic huddling of similar products as far back as the mid-80s when Hall Road, Lahore became the go-to stop for electronic items or Anarkali for clothing items. In Pakistan, this trend was further consolidated in the 90s when Hafeez Centre became the first dedicated venue of sale for computer parts and accessories," she says.

The malls have afforded mobility to women in KP, "The Hyper Mall on Ring Road Pushtakhara Chowk is visited by many women from the nearby villages. That decreases their dependency on men for shopping," says Ismat Bahar, a working woman from Peshawar. "Women who were not allowed to shop for themselves in Saddar Bazar or Mina Bazar in Peshawar, because these places are always crowded with men, now visit these malls."

Kahkashan agrees partially. True, huge shopping malls such as Packages Mall and Emporium Mall in Lahore have stepped up the game but one consequence of this has been the systematic lessening of the buyer’s bargaining power, "One cannot haggle over prices the way one used to with tailors or cloth sellers and the prices are not just fixed but, often, exorbitant," Kahkashan believes.

She agrees with Almas Hyder when she says, "The trend is all about convenience. In mainland USA, for example, where the shopping mall trend began, malls are shutting down at an ever-accelerating rate due to the convenience of reliable and quality internet shopping," she says. "Once the e-shopping culture in Pakistan is formalised and consumer rights become more protected, these malls, too, will inevitably see a decline."