I rank Warringah Mall as the best shopping centre in Sydney although I don’t often get to the Northern Beaches these days. Took my breath away the first time I went there in the early '90s. The mix of stores and the indoor outdoor design make it something special. Minto Mall was pretty special too (for all the wrong reasons) before it was renovated. I remember reading about it on the old Media Spy forum and making a special trip to experience it for myself. I wasn’t disappointed.
Chadstone was being renovated when I was last in Melbourne and I’d like to experience the finished product one day. I appreciated the history of the centre as Australia’s largest. Also made a point of seeing Fountain Gate because of Kath and Kim but didn’t think it was anything special. Bayside Frankston also disappointed because it didn’t live up to the bogan reputation I’d heard so much about. Thought it was a rather nice area, actually. I’ve had better bogan shopping experiences in areas of western Sydney.
Most shopping centres are soulless and have a cookie cutter design and ambience now. I miss the days when you could go to a different suburb and experience something unique in terms of design and the types of shops in the centre.
Haven’t been there since 2005, but there was a certain excitement at going to Pacific Fair on the Gold Coast a couple of times in the early 2000s and seeing the range of shops etc (coming from NZ I might add)
Went to Big W today and their pyjama section was just XL, XXL, XXL and above. One only range was available which was a huge spiderman print of pyjamas. No wonder Big W struggles to make a decent profit.
It was dribs and drabs left of the over-sized stuff. Clearly the S-L had been sold out quick - always the case even their online store is sold out only larger sizes.
I was at Woden a few weeks back and noticed a large banner inside the (recently renovated) Coles which said “Welcome to Coles Woden Plaza”. It’s been Westfield Woden since 2005!
The new Big W logo is a step back. It does look very similar to the one from the “We Sell for Less” era, but the one that came along in between was much more modern, and had a Big “W” that essentially doubled as a logo.
Kmart has changed their logo a bit. This one was around until the late 80s or early 90s. I recall the Belconnen store in Canberra having it well into the late 90s and possibly early 00s
Likely the stores internal name that has never been changed in line with shopping centre changes. Returning back to what started this conversation, I notice that Myer’s Westfield Booragoon store is still “Myer Garden City” on their website. This was extremely common in that period where Centro rebadged all it’s centres.
A lot of older Kmarts will still have this logo on their loading docks or merchandise pick-up doors.
Woolworths wants to extend the lease on their Town Hall store in Sydney until 2030, and is asking for another 20 years. The City of Sydney Council owns the Woolworths building and has long had a dream of creating a city square on the site, and the neighbouring sites it owns, that would match the square across George St between the Sydney Town Hall and St Andrew’s Cathedral. So the council has the dilemma of either taking the money from Woolworths or spending money to realise a long held plan.
I don’t know whether a town square would be such a great idea there. They don’t own the whole block and it would be like a half arsed attempt at a square. There are lots of public areas now with George Street becoming a trams and pedestrian zone now. There’s also public space between the Town Hall and St Andrews Cathedral which is underutilised. Just not sure that creating more space there is needed.
Now if they were to demolish the Woolworhhs building to build a bigger and better Town Hall Station which would eliminate overcrowding, then the public would appreciate it.
Isn’t there supposed to be an underground walkway between Town Hall Station and the new Metro Pitt Street Station? If so, yes a larger area between the stations would be a good idea.
I believe there were plans for a connection between the two but the platforms need work too. There are six platforms in a tiny area and they are overcrowded every day.
I don’t know if they can simply reconfigure the platforms so there is a side platform on one side or whether they would have to partially rebuild tunnels and tracks but they seriously need to fix the problems.
It’s a shame they didn’t go ahead with building platforms under the World Square buildings as originally planned, while they had the opportunity.
Yes, not the whole block as it seemed there was never any intention to buy the old Sydney County Council building on the corner of George and Bathurst Sts, iirc.
