Fountain Plaza in Egmore hopes to see good old days all over again

Report and photos by Shakti Balaji

Fountain Plaza, on Pantheon Road, Egmore was built in 1976 and is one of the oldest shopping complexes in the city. 

Forty years back, it was one of the top shopping destinations and people from all over the city came here. But, the small shops inside now witness a different trend.

Inside the complex, there is the main building which houses all the small shops, fulfilling every shopper's necessity, ranging from textiles to gifts. Surrounding the building, there are big shops like the famous chaat house - Ajanabi and the Fountain Fruit Center.

Fountain Fruit Center is a fresh fruits and juice shop located near the entrance. The owner, Majid says his shop has been there since the very opening of the plaza. 

He says “The number of customers has certainly decreased over the years as people prefer buying fruits at big air-conditioned shops like Nilgiris. Though we do get a lot of customers because of having the huge advantage of being near the entrance and not deep inside the building where people don’t even know that there are shops.”

The shops we see outside like Ajanabi and Fountain Fruit Center have good business even now. Deep inside the building are some well-stocked shops which seldom get customers. 

One such shop is Afrah, which sells kurtis for women. The owner, Abdul, complains that he gets only about 10 customers a day and hence business is not great. 

While some shop owners are complaining of fewer customers, there are some who are very happy to be here.

Rajesh, the owner of Rajesh Fancy Store, says that this shop was set up by his father in 1976 the day the plaza was opened. He says, “We used to get so many customers back in the day, when Fountain Plaza was the only big shopping complex in the city. Now people want to go to malls which are air-conditioned and and have good food courts.” 

He says some of his customers have been coming to the shop since the beginning and new customers are rare. When asked if he considered moving to a bigger better complex he said, “As long I go to bed each day, satisfied with serving my customers, I am more than happy to stay here and carry on my father’s legacy.”

Prakash, a young man is the owner of a mobile phone store. He says he used to help his father in his father’s sari shop here in the complex. 

He then went to the US to pursue studies. When he came back after 4 years, he set up a mobile phone sales and phone repair store in Fountain Plaza to continue his father’s business. He is known as the famous “I-phone Doctor” in the area. He says he is satisfied with the stream of customers he gets and would never consider moving to any other place.

Many senior shop owners at Fountain Plaza just hope the old days of the centre are back.