How a Shopping Centre Cleaned 12,000 m² of Concourse During Trading Hours
A composite case study: running autonomous scrubbers safely through a busy mall in daylight, the zones that decided the fleet, and an 18-month payback.
By WhichBot Team
Illustrative scenario.This case study is a composite built from real industry benchmarks and our Fleet & ROI engine, not a specific named customer. Figures are representative, not a guarantee.
A shopping centre can't wait until midnight to clean — spills happen at 2pm, and a concourse that looks tired at lunchtime costs foot traffic. The challenge isn't overnight throughput; it's cleaning 12,000 m² of common area safely, in daylight, around thousands of shoppers. We built the plan around two PUDU CC1 Pro scrubbers running continuous passes.
The brief
Cleaning had to move from a nightly event to a continuous background service — without becoming a hazard or an eyesore during trading.
- ~12,000 m² of polished concourse, food court and mall spine
- Runs all day around the public — low-speed operation and reliable avoidance are non-negotiable
- Hot zones (food court) need multiple passes; back corridors need one
- Must dock and refill discreetly, off the shopper's sightline
Where the passes should land
Not every zone needs the same attention. Mapping foot-traffic against the floor showed where continuous passes actually pay off:
Routes weighted to foot traffic — the food court gets 3–4 passes a day, quiet corridors one. The robot freshens the busy zones without a human standing over a mop at noon.
The shortlist
Prices are indicative Australian retail, ex-GST. The daytime constraint put unobtrusive operation ahead of raw speed.
| Model | Coverage | Noise | Indicative price |
|---|---|---|---|
| PUDU CC1 Pro | ~650 m²/h | ~70 dB | ~A$32,800 |
| PUDU CC1 | ~490 m²/h | ~70 dB | ~A$30,100 |
| Gausium Phantas | ~350–700 m²/h | ~60 dB (quieter) | ~A$44,600 |
Two CC1 Pro units covered the concourse with rolling passes and a mid-day charge. Where a centre wants the lowest possible noise in premium retail zones, the quieter Gausium Phantas is the trade-up.
The money
Two units plus mapping came to ~A$70,000 upfront, displacing most of a daytime cleaning shift for a net ~A$3,800/month:
Break-even at ~18.4 months on a $70,000 upfront outlay saving $3,800/month.
The payback captures labour. It misses the reason centre managers actually sign off: a concourse that is always presentable, not just clean at 6am and tired by lunch — which is the version shoppers see.
Would it work for your centre?
- Size it for your common area with the Fleet & ROI Planner.
- Or tell us about your site for a vendor-neutral shortlist.
Frequently asked questions
- Can cleaning robots run safely in a mall during trading hours?
- Yes. Autonomous scrubbers like the PUDU CC1 Pro use obstacle avoidance and people-detection to slow and reroute around shoppers, so common areas can be cleaned continuously in daylight instead of only after close.
- How many scrubbers does a shopping centre concourse need?
- In this composite, two PUDU CC1 Pro units maintained ~12,000 m² of common area across trading hours, running rolling passes so the busiest zones were freshened several times a day.
- What's the payback on cleaning robots for a shopping centre?
- About 18 months here: ~A$70,000 upfront for two units plus mapping, against ~A$3,800 a month in displaced daytime cleaning labour — before counting the presentation value of a constantly-clean concourse.
- Do daytime cleaning robots disrupt shoppers?
- Handled well, no — they run at low speed, yield to foot traffic, and cover a zone in minutes. Centres report they read as part of the experience rather than an obstacle.
Put these numbers to work
See which robot fits your facility and what it would save you.
Run the Fleet & ROI Planner