Canberra Centre expansion opens; RA not attending

don’t you have anything better to do?
the canberra centre is the nicest shopping centre in canberra. i was stuck tonight trying to get out of the carpark, and there was a whole bunch of the management staff directing traffic to help get the cars out, because (as i was told by one of them) there had been an accident on the street outside. i don’t think you’d see any of those piped music westfields doing that to help their customers.

Al, Was she a looker? If so, all is forgiven.

Too many big words like ‘communicate’ Al – you should have at least given her a dictionary while talking to her – what makes you think their PR / promotions girls are employed for their intelligence? Canberra Centre…all style no substance…..

For a week now shops in the old food mall area that I walk through every day have been disappearing with just notes to say they’d reopen in the new mall 2/11. Yesterday I heard a person call from the fish and chippy to a construction worker “when is this place shutting down?” “Tommorrow” was the answer. So if the shop staff don’t know, what hope that customers would get told what was happening….?
Today the lifts were fenced off and there was a nice girl in a brand new “Information” booth. I got a floor plan and expressed my surprise that this was the first the centre had done to communicate what was going to happen – after it had already happened. She looked at me blankly like the proverbial “fish shop window” (you know: blank staring eyes). I went on to say there had only been that useless but very expensive glossy thing they’ve had for the l.ast year…more blank.
I said wouldn’t it have been a good idea to try to offset all the inconveniences of the construction by regularly promoting what was coming up and updating customers – building the anticipation and excitement so to speak…
The blank eyes amazingly managed to get even blanker, and no words at all came out of her.
Good to see they employed such PR experts for their high profile roles…

I went through this morning – I recomend taking a machette to wade through all the concierge and information staff employed for a week to explain why you cant get to the shops through there
they were very helpful
I had no idea that there was any sort of grand opening on, after all its some shops, and most of them were there anyway. Shame on you Kerces for being interested!
Im amazed that this project has come off to be honest. The extended disruption to one side of the city finally coming to an end. i get free stuff from all the new shops for putting up with construction noise when I had a nice, quiet place in Reid, right? I medan they were nearly as noisy as Mombassa!

meh – its a shopping centre, really, who the f*ck cares…

I wonder if Russell Crowe’s been invited?

Well I did check it out this morning (I was intrigued, so sue me! In my defence I didn’t spend a single cent…). And while the place looks quite nice, I’d have to say they really seem to be taking it a bit downmarket. The only new shops that are open are the ones outside (possibly the world’s smallest) Big W. So they were always going to be the cheap shops. But Payless Shoes? Rockmans? It’s hardly the kind of level that Canberra Centre has been marketing itself as. It seems there are some more ‘classy’ stores to open in the new area that provides access from the old mall (near Starbucks) to the Big W area. But none of those are anywhere near open yet.

it’s photographic access that was the main issue.

Just on the D list celebrity wagon someone mentioned earlier … Will Hayley Jensen get to cut the ribbon? Or maybe one of the Capitals. Or the Belconnen Blue Devils soccer players. Or even Hotdogs – he’s based in Canberra now. I’ll have to get my ass down there quickstix