By: Staff Writer
Colombo (LNW): The highly anticipated international standard Havelock City Mall opened to the public on Thursday 19 with many firsts to Sri Lanka including security guards thuggery against customers.
“We look forward to providing a diverse and exciting retail environment, entertainment options and dining experiences for all our shoppers.
Havelock City Mall is poised to become the ultimate modern lifestyle suburban mall, catering to the entire family – a happy place for all.”CEO of the management company Pravir Samarasinghe told local news papers recently.
He disclosed that they invested US$ 130 million for the office tower and the Mall.
But Mr. Samarasighe’s pledge of catering to the entire family – a happy place for all has become mere words as a restaurant mall security guard was in the practice of harassing customers seating at the overcrowded “Food Studio”.
Some of them were having dinner at the restaurant and the majority had to wait for their food to be ready for hours due to crowd control by security guards at very low ebb and one of them was very rude going beyond his limitations as a security guard.
He tried to forcibly remove some customers who were eating at the restaurant waiting for two of their family members who had gone to buy food and bring it to them at around 9.30 pm yesterday.
He wanted to remove those who were seated at that time to enable some other customers who came late and were facing difficulties to find seating place.
Mr. Samarasighe should tell the people of Sri Lanka that who has given permission to unseat customers who are visiting the Havelock City Mall harassing them in rowdy manner by a thug like security guard as you have told newspapers that this Colombo’s premier lifestyle mall is offering an unparalleled range of shopping and dining options.
Food court of the food studio space was in a common seating area; to be able to attract people from different demographics and walks of life and give them enough choice to come and choose whatever they wanted to eat.
How Can you come to the food court and choose whatever they wanted to eat during crowded times amidst security threatening the visitors to vacate their seats making way for other customers by an unruly security guard behaving like a thug a disgruntled customer complained.
The food court culture in Sri Lanka’s malls, which have been around since the 1990s, had a rather generic offering.
Despite the growth of the F&B industry in the city, driven by franchises and standalone restaurants, it didn’t significantly influence the existing food courts within malls.
