Despite the heavy downpour, the Palladium Mall was buzzing when we arrived shortly after noontime. At the entrance, we put our bags through a UV scanner for disinfection and stepped on a sanitation mat.

Inside, we noticed that each store had a sign indicating the maximum number of customers at any given time, depending on their size. At our first stop, Zara, customers were limited to 62. Bobbi Brown, the make-up favourite, had a limit of two customers owing to the small size of the store.