Kathmandu

Kathmandu is becoming a shopping hub with new shopping centres opening every now and then. And Buddha Mall at Balaju is a recent addition. Opened four months ago, this earthquake resistant shopping mall offers varieties of clothing items along with other products, and at a reasonable price.

Physical features

As you enter the three-storey building of Buddha Mall and take a few steps ahead, you find an open space inside the

building. This lets you take a quick look at the stores here, minimising your time to decide which store to visit first. Seventy stores of readymade clothes, accessories, electronics, luggage bags, blankets et cetera — are running in the mall that opened on September 18, 2015.

And parking space is not a problem here — there is plenty of space in front of the building for parking. "The building is built in 13 ropani of land with sufficient parking space — it can accommodate around 500 vehicles,” informed Sagar Gautam, Director of Sagarmatha Investment Company. The mall is managed by this company.

The courtyard of the mall has a food court, and nearby there is a game zone for children. There are six restrooms. Though only 70 stores are under operation at present, Buddha Mall has 52 shutters in each floor and other stores are yet to run.

The ground floor features retail stores for clothing, shoes, bags, electronics, mobile and more. The first floor has been used by banks, insurance companies along with some retail shopping stores. The second floor will feature both wholesale and retailer stores in a few months time.

Products to look for

In the stores that open from 6:30 am to 7:30 pm, you get traditional clothes for ladies and children, fancy clothes

for all age group, shoes, bags and more.

At Karki Kids Wear, situated on the ground floor, clothes are available for newly born to 14 year olds. From jacket to frock, trousers, tee-shirts, you get all kinds of clothings. As per its Owner Tej Raj Karki, the price of the clothes is reasonable as compared to other stores in Buddha Mall and one can get up to 10 per discount.

GM Collection on the same floor sells traditional wears for females — like kurta salwar, sari, sweater, lungi, and tops in both retail and wholesale rate. Here you can get up to 20 per cent discount. Shrestha Ladies Goods Supplies on the second floor, features an array of ladies' readymade clothings — trousers, tops, sweater, shawl, lungi, kurta salwar and more. But the store deals as a wholesaler where you have to buy in sets of four and there is no discount at all.

Adjacent to it is Janaki Emporium, another wholesale/retail store dealing with bed sheet, blanket, quilt, towel and pillow imported from China and Korea. Here you will get discount from five to 10 per cent.

Why Buddha Mall

"We are a newly opened mall at the heart of Balaju where one can get products in reasonable price," claims Gautam about shopping here.

Meanwhile, as this shopping centre is adjacent to Balaju Bus Park, it is a destination of quick shopping for passengers who start their journey from this bus park as per Gautam. The store owners of various districts of the nation also buy different products at wholesale stores here.

Janaki Emporium

Blanket: Rs 1,800 to Rs 6,000

Towel: Rs 150 to Rs 800

Quilt: Rs 2,000 to Rs 6,000

GM Collection

Sari: Rs 2,500 to Rs 12,000

Kurta Salwar: Rs 400 to Rs 25,000

Sweater: Rs 800 to Rs 2,200

Shawl: Rs 450 to Rs 1,000

Lungi: Rs 150 to Rs 450

Shrestha Ladies Goods Supplies

Kurta Salwar: Rs 1,500 to Rs 4,000

Tops: Rs 2,000 to Rs 3,000

Trousers: Rs 300 to Rs 800

Karki Kids Wear

Baby set: Rs 350 to Rs 1,450

Jacket: Rs 800 to Rs 2,600

Trousers: Rs 600 and above