Fad or not, Pokemon Go is clearly drawing foot traffic inside supermarkets and shopping centres in Hong Kong.
By the middle of last week, at least 11 Hong Kong malls had announced they would deploy Lure Modules on their premises to draw Pokemon hunters. A lure draws Pokemon to appear at a ‘Pokestop’ for 30 minutes.
On Saturday, an Inside Retail Hong Kong correspondent measured foot falls at two malls in Tsim Sha Tsui – The One, which was participating in the Pokemon Go craze, and another, Miramall which was apparently not.  
She reports measuring 23.6 people entering The One every minute around lunchtime, with only 11 entering Miramall despite that centre running a live event at the time, and a mall-wide sale.
Subsequently, our secret shopper played Pokemon Go and won a HK$100 voucher which she promptly spent (along with more cash of her own, proving the lures do work).
The South China Morning Post reported on Wednesday that Sun Hung Kai Properties would deploy lures at five of its malls until the end of the week for four hours a day during lunch and dinner time.
“I believe [the promotion] can bring an increase of 5 to 10 per cent in flow of traffic, with restaurants and gaming stores benefitting the most,” GM Fiona Chung told the newspaper.
Times Square and Tin Shui Wai park were other hotspots quickly seeing the benefits of cashing in on the augmented reality craze.