This is what to expect when Bangkok malls reopen
Say hello to the new “normal” shopping experience.
3 years ago
With the prospect of reopening as soon as May 17, Bangkok malls are working on ways to ensure your safety and comfort while you shop in their air-conditioned climes. Here are some of the steps that our city’s temples of consumerism are taking now. Be prepared: some of these sound mighty dystopian. And no, there won’t be any UV sanitizing gates this time. We think.
Pretty much all malls, including those under The Mall Group (EmQuartier, Emporium), the Central Group (Central Embassy, CentralWorld) and Siam Piwat (IconSiam, Siam Center, Siam Paragon, Siam Discovery), have announced a series of safety measures that include:
- Extra Screening: Every shopper will have their temperatures checked before entering malls and be required to wear masks at all times. At Central Embassy, guests will register for entrance by scanning a QR code. Every staff member will be wearing a face shield and gloves, while delivery men will have their own designated waiting areas, with disinfectant available for use. At The Mall Group venues, staff must present a medical certificate before returning to work and submit to having their temperatures checked twice a day.
- Social Distancing: At the Central Group malls, there will be a spacing limit of one person per five square meters before entering the facility. Each shopper will have to distance themselves at least two meters from the nearest person before using all common areas, stores, elevators and escalators. All restaurants inside will have face shields, food shields and table shields provided, along with counter shields for cashiers. All diners will be seated at least a meter apart. IconSiam and Siam Paragon will limit the number of guests allowed in each day in accordance with any directives passed down by the government.
- Safety Tracking: At Central Embassy, all staff members will be equipped with health tracking systems, which includes information of their whereabouts from the past two weeks. All takeaway boxes will be marked with the name of the restaurant, its branch and the time ordered, as well as the temperature and name of the cook who prepared it. Siam Piwat malls will be employed something called a True5G Temi Thermal Scan AutoBot to check your temperature, and information can be sent to you immediately via Line in case anyone has been flagged as symptomatic.
- Extra Cleaning: All buttons, handrails, and floors will be disinfected every 30 minutes pretty much citywide. All chairs, table shields, charge cards and parking cards will be cleaned before and after every use. Malls will be disinfected daily after closing, and Central Embassy promises a “big cleaning” every week. All shopping bags will be sterilized, and you can expect bathrooms, lounges and valet areas to be sparkling-clean, too. At the Siam malls, all clothing stores will sterilize each item of clothing after someone tries it on as well.
- Touchless Experience: At the Central Group malls, all doors and elevators will be operated by a staff member, and cashless and e-payment will be reinforced to minimize touching. All changes will be provided with a “change bag” from the cashiers of every store. All the Siam malls will be using the ONESIAM mobile app, which aims to ease the shopping experience by providing details of each store and product in one easy-to-find space. The Mall Group will be operating its own app as well, called EM AR, which will facilitate the screening of visitors, among other functions.
We assume a lot of these measures will be the norm everywhere, even if we haven’t mentioned them—that’s the way these things tend to work. But the main takeaway is this: expect lots of initiatives aimed at keeping you protected while also keeping the malls open for good.
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