Delay No Mall is no more - trendy store folds after failing to pull in shoppers
Apparently, anywhere outside of Sogo or Times Square is just too inconvenient for shoppers to walk to. That's why the Delay No Mall is folding after just 18 months, says the founder of the boutique clothing retailer.
The two-storey mall building, next to the Regal Hotel in Yee Wo Street - just far enough from the main thoroughfare in Causeway Bay that patrons had to put in extra effort to get there - will be home to a Din Tai Fung restaurant, famous for its steamed dumplings, by the end of this year. Delay No Mall has already emptied out.
'The address is very awkward. It's very difficult to do retail. Of course, the fact that the economy was so bad didn't help,' Delay No Mall's founder, Douglas Young Chi-chiu, said.
'I think it's tough because there's so much retail in Hong Kong and people go for convenience. I think, if it's food, people are willing to cross that extra street because food is essential, whereas the things we were selling in there were non-essentials.'
The mall had a lot going for it, including an unforgettable name that, like its accompanying fashion concept, Delay No More, is a play on words, sounding like Cantonese foul language. The fashion line will continue and Mr Young will focus on G.O.D., his successful lifestyle retail venture. G.O.D. recently opened a new store at the Peak Galleria.
Mr Young said he initially agreed to take up the Causeway Bay space because he was under the impression the government was going to replace the elevated pedestrian roundabout with a zebra crossing to allow people easier access to the area. As the work never happened, the lack of foot traffic ensured the mall was doomed to fail.
Space in the mall was let out to retail tenants on leases as short as three months. All the tenants had already vacated the mall, he said.
'All in all, we decided instead of running a retail concept that is different from G.O.D., we should concentrate all our efforts into running G.O.D. and rent the building out to a restaurant so that they can occupy the whole space and we don't have to manage them,' Mr Young said.
'We've always had a food element inside Delay No Mall and the food has always done so much better than retail. That is why we thought the food direction is definitely the one way to go.'
Its website says the mall is 'looking at an exciting change of concept to food and beverage'.
