The Rise of Food Courts in Retail Spaces

• 12 December 2020
• Local News
• 2876 Views

By Eric Wong Chon Lap

Food courts have been an essential experience for many mall-goers and is one of the magnets to draw in traffic. In Phnom Penh, it is common to see food courts packed with students or families hanging out for lunch or dinner. As food courts generally offer quick and affordable meals, this is the perfect destinations for those looking for budget-friendly alternatives to the restaurants in a shopping mall.

At the same time, with the growth of food delivery services, consumer behaviour has also shifted online, leading to fewer visits to stores. For the general food court operators, they are required to manage and maintain footfall via improving the atmosphere and services, and the varieties of food available, serving customers a new dining experience etc. to differentiate themselves from standalone restaurants.

The street vendors in Phnom Penh often lack professional management and may face difficulties in approaching customers in the long run, due to their inferior locations, problems with hygiene and staggered hours of operation.

To invite these vendors to open at the food court, food court operators can combine these street food vendors and thus lead to a win-win situation. First, retail developers could bring in more footfall. Second, food court operators can fill up their spaces while street food vendors could strengthen their businesses.

Food court operators can offer food booths ranging from famous restaurants to street food joints from different regions across the country, or cuisines from other parts of the world. This will be a strong draw to attract both locals and tourist customers to experience local dishes and explore other international cuisines. Moreover, food courts also allow consumers to find a little bit of everything. They offer smaller portions compared to restaurants, which could encourage a more grazing style to eat.

With the current COVID-19 pandemic where more safety and hygiene standards will be needed, it will be interesting to see how food court operators adapt in the current market situation. As a result, food courts will also have to adapt and compete with the ever-changing retail landscape and consumers’ behaviour.

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Eric Wong has extensive experiences in the field of property consulting and development sectors, primarily within the emerging markets of Southeast Asia. His previous role involved with assisting in the development of project budgets to ensure the operations are within cost restraints, developing and executing projects for the assigned market areas etc. From the property consulting prospective, he has lead market research assignments inclusive of providing descriptive, exploratory market research and analysis reports within the office, residential, hotel and retail segments in both quantitative and qualitative methods to determine suitable development types, scale and product mix, and address property-related matters from project positioning to absorption rates, phasing and pricing and marketing strategies etc.

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