One mall to rule them all?

poetix said :

Won’t we all be getting everything made by 3D copiers? Including the jetpacks we update on a weekly basis? .

My fourth grade school teacher assured me we would have ‘hover-cars’ by the time I was old enough to get my drivers licence. I got my learners permit 29 years ago…

If you are reading this Miss Quinn, .Where is my hover-car? You Promised!

Won’t we all be getting everything made by 3D copiers? Including the jetpacks we update on a weekly basis?

Except of course for the Knitters, who cast off to create an alternative universe entirely based around the domestic arts.

johnboy said :

More sprawling than North Yorkshire?

No, but then again we’re a city, not a shire, people don’t want to have to drive for 30+ minutes in their own city just to buy some nice clothes and some new CDs. I’m not saying I have any qualifications to make certified statements about Australian shopping culture, but I wouldn’t be putting any money down on your prediction, JB. The UK is a strange and wonderful place, a bit like Narnia.

What’s that old saying? “An Apple store and a Zara does not a Mega-Mall make”?

Anyway, Canberra’s too sprawling for the Canberra Centre to cannibalise Tuggers, Woden and Belco; as long as we have the outer-south and outer-north there’ll always be a demand for malls in those areas.

When I lived in the UK I much preferred high streets. Westfield was a crazy maze

KB1971 said :

Since when did average people become bogans?

I wasn’t trying to stereotype everyone that shops at Westfield, just pointing out that while bogans continue to flock there en masse, suburban malls are in no danger of disappearing.

arescarti42 said :

This. The other thing the town centres have going for them is they’re more easily and cheaply accessible by car than the Canberra Centre.

Seems you havent been to Belconnen mall recently on a weekend? if you had you would know its quicker to drive to civic and park that to find a park in the malls car park.

Interesting article although, as you say JB, it is UK-centric.

I think the key sentence is “Unlike the high street, shopping centres offer the plentiful floor space, cheap or free car-parking and easy access for delivery lorries that retailers want”, and the crucial phrase is “cheap or free car-parking”. Unless, or until, the long-awaited (by some) “oil shock” hits us, and people have little choice but to use what public transport is available, I reckon car-loving Canberrans would not be flocking to an even larger Canberra Centre which had cannibalised the town centre malls. It would just be too congested – unless Canberra is squeezed and cut, more than any of us would care to imagine, by a future Government – in which case, it is difficult to see anyone rushing to sink further large amounts of money into retail in this town.

Keijidosha said :

It is probably safe to assume that Apple and Zara chose the Canberra Centre because it appeals to their upper-middle class demographic. Westfield are still attracting bogans like moths to a flame, so I doubt that juggernaut will lose momentum any time soon.

This. The other thing the town centres have going for them is they’re more easily and cheaply accessible by car than the Canberra Centre.

If Canberra’s suburban malls are killed off, I reckon the culprit will be the same thing that is killing them in the US, big box/supercentre stores and lifestyle centres.

Keijidosha said :

It is probably safe to assume that Apple and Zara chose the Canberra Centre because it appeals to their upper-middle class demographic. Westfield are still attracting bogans like moths to a flame, so I doubt that juggernaut will lose momentum any time soon.

Since when did average people become bogans?