If you fancy a shopping...

If you fancy a shopping spree at this new mall, donтЂ™t expect to fit all your items in your basket! The shelves arenтЂ™t only stacked with the usual mix of food, clothes and gadgets тЂ“ brand new cars are on offer, too.

ItтЂ™s a novel idea from Japanese marque Toyota, which is using the indoor shopping centre to showcase its latest models. Instead of hiding them in dealers, itтЂ™s dotting them around the mallтЂ™s walkways.

Visitors to the sprawling site, in Yokohama, Japan, will have to pass the vehicles to access the 220 shops, array of restaurants and the gymnasium that the mall also houses.

Other features will include shopping trolleys shaped like cars, and a model store boasting a range of the brandтЂ™s vehicles. ToyotaтЂ™s humanoid robot technology will be displayed, too. But top brass arenтЂ™t borrowing space from the siteтЂ™s owners. Instead, the mall тЂ“ open this week тЂ“ was developed and built by the firm as part of a new sales strategy to drum up fresh interest in cars among new motorists. Toyota is keen to find novel ways of targeting youngsters who spend plenty of time shopping for items such as mobile phones and other hi-tech gadgets.

Vehicle sales in Japan are forecast to drop to a 27-year low of 5.3 million for the 2007-08 financial year when theyтЂ™re announced later this month тЂ“ down six per cent on 2006-07.

ToyotaтЂ™s sales chief Yoichiro Ichimaru said the firm couldnтЂ™t afford to sit back and wait for business to come to it. тЂњWe need to provide greater opportunities for people to see our cars,тЂќ he explained.