Death of a Shopping Mall: A Rant

[MeGoDanceNow 4,281]

This rant isn’t going to interest all of you, but I thought I’d throw together some observations about a Great New Thing here in Patpong-bye-the-Sea that went spectacularly pear-shaped during the recession: The Avenue shopping mall.

 

The Avenue Pattaya opened in fall 2007, and now, just three short years later, the joint is falling completely to seed. How did this little oasis of urban cool become a nightmare so quickly?

 

Well, obviously the opening of the big new Bangkok-style mall, Central Festival Pattaya, did it in, just like it deep-sixed Royal Garden Plaza. But the gruesome tale of the Avenue is worth a look, because it’s in many ways a typical tale of how businesses go tits-up in Pattaya

 

It was all so promising three years ago The design was beautiful, with nice rounded contours (instead of yettanudda strip of shophouse cubes), landscaping with old-growth trees and a fountain, a wooden boardwalk, parking and oodles of space inside. Big-name tenants signed up quickly, including Shenanigans (kicked out of its old spot beside Royal Garden), Starbucks, California WOW Fitness, Pizza Company, Coffee Bean, Pizza Pizza and the ubiquitous Bookazine. Villa Market had its own entrance. There was even a luxury cinema, Major Cinema, just like the ones in Bangkok. Well-heeled family tourism, here we come!

 

Then the rot started to set in. The parking was ill-conceived -- the entrance to the multi-level parking was confusing and cramped, so customers didn’t want to use it. The landlords charged for parking, and though they weren’t as surly as the parking-lot mafia at the Gardoons, they added a layer of hassle, as you had to stump up cash if you couldn’t produce a stamped receipt. And you have to watch your time, too. Nothing says “we value your business” like being told you have to fork out 40 baht because you spent five minutes too long shopping.

 

Next, customers abandoned the shops in the back. None of the high-roller tenants wanted the back areas, except Major Cinemas, so the Avenue was forced to rent out space to all comers. Of course Pattaya (and the world) was still booming then, so takers weren’t hard to find, and the mall filled up with me-too shoe stores, no-hope restaurants like Fat Boy, trinket sellers and of course hairdressers.

 

So when Central Festival Mall opened up, the Avenue was already on a slippery slope. With shoppers stampeding to gleaming new Central, the Avenue started to hemorrhage tenants. A few nice businesses that were doing OK in the second-rate locations, like the Apple store, the massage joint on the third floor and that tea shop whatever it’s called, pulled up stakes, some reappearing at Central. Desperate for revenue, the landlords hit on a brilliant idea: Rent out every inch of outdoor space to market stalls.

 

If there’s one thing Thai businesspeople excel in, it’s fucking over their best customers. The market stalls made the mall impassable after 3 PM, draining foot traffic from the few surviving businesses. The pikers with their little trinket stalls got VIP treatment, with the best parking spots reserved for them -- the customers can go fuck themselves, apparently. Villa Market took over the rest of the decent parking, so only Villa customers could park there. (20 baht to the security guard takes care of that detail.)

 

Unable to compete with SFX Cinema in Central, Major Cinemas switched off its projectors for good. (Edit: Sorry, they're still there, but they've slashed the amount of space they use in half. Thanks Emil.) Then the gaff really went to seed. With whole floors now abandoned, the site is looking distinctly gamey Large glory holes are cut out at todger level in the men’s washrooms on the 2nd and 3rd floors Now the mall is trying to cut its losses by parceling out space on the top floors, formerly occupied by a big property developer and some restaurants, for yet more trinket sellers.

 

Some of the shops facing the road will probably continue to do well enough to stay – Starbucks, Micky Dee’s, Shenanigans, Villa, Boots, Au Bon Pain. I expect the rest of the joint to be shuttered or turned into market stalls within a year or two. Pizza Pizza jacked its prices way up and probably won’t last.

 

Lessons learned: Well, OK, if they got the chance the landlords would probably make all the same mistakes all over again. THEY didn’t learn fuck all. But I did:

 

1. Think about parking!! Parking is an afterthought for most businesses here, including every cunt who runs a store out of a shophouse. Central offers free parking, with direct access to every floor, not just the ground floor. Why shop anywhere else?

 

2. Plan your upper levels. This applies to everyone from Secrets, which shrewdly uses every inch of space on all floors, 24 hours a day, to Mike Shopping, which is a clusterfuck. (Who bothers to climb the escalators at Mike Shopping to buy a T-shirt on the third floor?) Central puts different types of shops on different floors, so people know exactly where they want to go and use the whole mall.

 

3. Make a deal and stick to it. Did Au Bon Pain know it was going to get a stupid noisy outdoor market right in front of it, choking off foot traffic and annoying its customers with noise and loud music? Did Coffee Bean get advance notice that all the good parking was going to be taken away and given to 3,000-baht-a-month paupers flogging jeans and bootleg CDs? Of course not.

 

Rant over. I feel better now.

Edited January 1, 2011 by LadyDrinkKing

[sabaidii2 171]

Brilliant analysis!

 

I haven't been to The Avenue but I understand all your points.

 

===========

One question about:

"Large glory holes are cut out at todger level in the men’s washrooms on the 2nd and 3rd floors"

 

Is this really true? If so, I'm astonished that the holes weren't fixed/replaced (I guess I don't appreciate the degree with which owners can allow their properties to fall apart.) Maybe the solution is to bring in Boy gogos for that area...

[Emil 0]

Don,

 

Just a couple comments. When did the movies shut down as they were up and running at the beginning of Dec? I heard that ComCity has jacked up the rent and that many retailers there are moving to the Ave as their current leases expire. Also heard that Pattaya Immigration is considerering opening a satillte office at either Centeral or the Ave. If they can fill the place up with retailers from Com City and lease out space for immigration then hopefully that can either get rid of that night market or at least cut bak on the numbers.

[86Tiger 17]

It was a nice place with potential. I hate to see it dry up.

 

JWP

[MeGoDanceNow 4,281]

Don,

 

Just a couple comments. When did the movies shut down as they were up and running at the beginning of Dec? I heard that ComCity has jacked up the rent and that many retailers there are moving to the Ave as their current leases expire. Also heard that Pattaya Immigration is considerering opening a satillte office at either Centeral or the Ave. If they can fill the place up with retailers from Com City and lease out space for immigration then hopefully that can either get rid of that night market or at least cut bak on the numbers.

 

Had to think about that one for a minute. Major Cinemas is still there! You're right. But they stopped using the big space on the second floor where you used to buy tickets. That's all open now. They still have their cinemas on the third level, next to the bowling alley. That's what got me confused.

 

ComCity? Is that TukCom? If so, it makes sense -- businesses that couldn't afford Avenue before, and had to make do with that craptastic shithole on South Pattaya Rd, can afford the Avenue because the owners are desperate. If that's what happened, it says more about the dire state of TukCom than the attractiveness of the Avenue IMNSHO.

[logan 1]

seems the bigger companies have been pulling out and a few who have jumped onto the knock down price rents have jumped aboard a sinking ship, alas these guys are still trying to get silly prices for their cheap rubbish and you can see it wont last, I wonder what it will end up, probably a bunch of bars.

[spike 236]

the place was doomed as soon as Festival opened...same with RGP....bidness fact-o-life.

 

still...the Avenues is a major reason...IMHO...for the success of Pattaya Bay Resort ....the Avenues provided easy access to the new hotel from drinking establishments on 2nd Road...that would not have been as conveinent to traverse from soi Diana, Buckaroo or 2nd Road by soi Boys Town.

[js007 795]

This rant isn’t going to interest all of you, but I thought I’d throw together some observations about a Great New Thing here in Patpong-bye-the-Sea that went spectacularly pear-shaped during the recession: The Avenue shopping mall.

 

The Avenue Pattaya opened in fall 2007, and now, just three short years later, the joint is falling completely to seed. How did this little oasis of urban cool become a nightmare so quickly?

 

Well, obviously the opening of the big new Bangkok-style mall, Central Festival Pattaya, did it in, just like it deep-sixed Royal Garden Plaza. But the gruesome tale of the Avenue is worth a look, because it’s in many ways a typical tale of how businesses go tits-up in Pattaya

 

It was all so promising three years ago The design was beautiful, with nice rounded contours (instead of yettanudda strip of shophouse cubes), landscaping with old-growth trees and a fountain, a wooden boardwalk, parking and oodles of space inside. Big-name tenants signed up quickly, including Shenanigans (kicked out of its old spot beside Royal Garden), Starbucks, California WOW Fitness, Pizza Company, Coffee Bean, Pizza Pizza and the ubiquitous Bookazine. Villa Market had its own entrance. There was even a luxury cinema, Major Cinema, just like the ones in Bangkok. Well-heeled family tourism, here we come!

 

Then the rot started to set in. The parking was ill-conceived -- the entrance to the multi-level parking was confusing and cramped, so customers didn’t want to use it. The landlords charged for parking, and though they weren’t as surly as the parking-lot mafia at the Gardoons, they added a layer of hassle, as you had to stump up cash if you couldn’t produce a stamped receipt. And you have to watch your time, too. Nothing says “we value your business” like being told you have to fork out 40 baht because you spent five minutes too long shopping.

 

Next, customers abandoned the shops in the back. None of the high-roller tenants wanted the back areas, except Major Cinemas, so the Avenue was forced to rent out space to all comers. Of course Pattaya (and the world) was still booming then, so takers weren’t hard to find, and the mall filled up with me-too shoe stores, no-hope restaurants like Fat Boy, trinket sellers and of course hairdressers.

 

So when Central Festival Mall opened up, the Avenue was already on a slippery slope. With shoppers stampeding to gleaming new Central, the Avenue started to hemorrhage tenants. A few nice businesses that were doing OK in the second-rate locations, like the Apple store, the massage joint on the third floor and that tea shop whatever it’s called, pulled up stakes, some reappearing at Central. Desperate for revenue, the landlords hit on a brilliant idea: Rent out every inch of outdoor space to market stalls.

 

If there’s one thing Thai businesspeople excel in, it’s fucking over their best customers. The market stalls made the mall impassable after 3 PM, draining foot traffic from the few surviving businesses. The pikers with their little trinket stalls got VIP treatment, with the best parking spots reserved for them -- the customers can go fuck themselves, apparently. Villa Market took over the rest of the decent parking, so only Villa customers could park there. (20 baht to the security guard takes care of that detail.)

 

Unable to compete with SFX Cinema in Central, Major Cinemas switched off its projectors for good. (Edit: Sorry, they're still there, but they've slashed the amount of space they use in half. Thanks Emil.) Then the gaff really went to seed. With whole floors now abandoned, the site is looking distinctly gamey Large glory holes are cut out at todger level in the men’s washrooms on the 2nd and 3rd floors Now the mall is trying to cut its losses by parceling out space on the top floors, formerly occupied by a big property developer and some restaurants, for yet more trinket sellers.

 

Some of the shops facing the road will probably continue to do well enough to stay – Starbucks, Micky Dee’s, Shenanigans, Villa, Boots, Au Bon Pain. I expect the rest of the joint to be shuttered or turned into market stalls within a year or two. Pizza Pizza jacked its prices way up and probably won’t last.

 

Lessons learned: Well, OK, if they got the chance the landlords would probably make all the same mistakes all over again. THEY didn’t learn fuck all. But I did:

 

1. Think about parking!! Parking is an afterthought for most businesses here, including every cunt who runs a store out of a shophouse. Central offers free parking, with direct access to every floor, not just the ground floor. Why shop anywhere else?

 

2. Plan your upper levels. This applies to everyone from Secrets, which shrewdly uses every inch of space on all floors, 24 hours a day, to Mike Shopping, which is a clusterfuck. (Who bothers to climb the escalators at Mike Shopping to buy a T-shirt on the third floor?) Central puts different types of shops on different floors, so people know exactly where they want to go and use the whole mall.

 

3. Make a deal and stick to it. Did Au Bon Pain know it was going to get a stupid noisy outdoor market right in front of it, choking off foot traffic and annoying its customers with noise and loud music? Did Coffee Bean get advance notice that all the good parking was going to be taken away and given to 3,000-baht-a-month paupers flogging jeans and bootleg CDs? Of course not.

 

Rant over. I feel better now.

 

 

Wow. That rant must have taken you a while to write. Why do you care? Do you have a business there?

[Emil 0]

Had to think about that one for a minute. Major Cinemas is still there! You're right. But they stopped using the big space on the second floor where you used to buy tickets. That's all open now. They still have their cinemas on the third level, next to the bowling alley. That's what got me confused.

 

ComCity? Is that TukCom? If so, it makes sense -- businesses that couldn't afford Avenue before, and had to make do with that craptastic shithole on South Pattaya Rd, can afford the Avenue because the owners are desperate. If that's what happened, it says more about the dire state of TukCom than the attractiveness of the Avenue IMNSHO.

 

Your still a little confussed. They're now selling tickets on the 3rd level next to the enterance of the bowling allies. The snack bar and cinemas are located on the next level up.

 

Yes TukCom and from I've read on another board they jacked up the rents and one of the guys that is moving to the Avenue posted that over 100 are making the move. Whether the Ave can entice Immgration to located there, I for one will be happy whether they are located at Centeral or the Ave. as long as they are processing Retirement extensions.

[spike 236]

instant success guaranteed....turn the Avenues into Nana Plaza South ....the place wood be a buzzin' from the get-go

[bvthunder 3]

I couldn't agree more -- you have nailed it. Great analysis.

 

I walk through there all the time cutting over to second and beach roads. It's been interesting to watch the demise. I didn't know all of the particulars but now have a better understanding of the crash.

 

Thanks.

[SmellyFarang 57]

Bummer. Here are some pics from when it first started to open summer of 2007. Sad to see it slide so far so fast.

[MeGoDanceNow 4,281]

 

 

Niiice! You've captured the original look of the place, too.

 

I'm going to go back and see what's up with that cinema.

[MM 6,562]

I never liked the place because they made Vientiane Restaurant move to the boonies of Sukhimvit and Pattaya Tai.

 

Some things are just unforgivable.

[LBJ 533]

Emil is correct. The theaters are where they have always been. The ticket booth has been moved again, now next to the bowling alley.

 

And I have to agree, opening it up to the market vendors sure makes it hard to walk thru at night.

[thegrogmonster 101]

Death of a shopping mall. The place has been of life support since it opened and I don't think any business there would have raked in the money.

[jimmac 66]

Very interesting analysis.

 

As some-one who stays at the Sandy Spring when in Pattaya I think the Avenue was a great addition. I like the easy access to quality farang food at the Villa supermarket. I did initially enjoy the massage place on the top floor but alas it is gone.

 

You fail to mention the Wine Connection which is also a major asset close to my hotel of choice. Is that store still there and will it survive?

 

I couldn't agree with you more on the stupidity of covering every square inch every evening with shitbox stalls.

[benny27 3]

Its a great pity its doing so badly. I for one thought the Villa Supermarket was well worth a trip, good prices and and excellent 'fast food' style thai restaurant, bought a few t shirts at the sports shops there too.

The shopping road that is Pattayaland? linking beach and 2nd road seems to be doing OK, can't see why though.

[Emil 0]

I never liked the place because they made Vientiane Restaurant move to the boonies of Sukhimvit and Pattaya Tai.

 

Some things are just unforgivable.

 

No they didn't. You should have been happy because Vientiane moved to Walking St just a very short distance from FLB. I liked the location on Walking St as you could enjoy your meal next to the Gulf and after dinner you were right on Walking St. I don't know why they closed that location.

[MM 6,562]

Yeah Emil they did move to WS for a bit, but I blame the Avenues for giving them the Wanderlust!

[rightsaid 44]

Sorry got to disagree.

 

People when they go to a shopping mall like to shop in airconditioned comfort.

 

The major design flaw of the mall is that going from store to store involves walking around in the open.

[Lucky 47]

Sorry got to disagree.

 

People when they go to a shopping mall like to shop in airconditioned comfort.

 

The major design flaw of the mall is that going from store to store involves walking around in the open.

I agree with most of your observations but I'm with Rightsaid, people in Pattaya like to shop in air-conditioned comfort. When it is 100 degrees outside who can do any window shopping in the heat.

 

I still enjoy going to the Avenue especially to shop for groceries since the Villa Market is so convenient especially since they have taken over half of the parking area for their customers. The Royal Garden is still trying to get its footing back since Central Festival opened but they seem to be doing a pretty good job of redefining their mall and holding on to the business that is left. Central Festival is always doing a brisk business but it is harder for me to park there and get in and out quickly so I still go to The Avenue and Royal Garden.

 

IMO an outdoor mall in the sweltering heat of SE Asia is always going to be destined to have problems attracting shoppers.

[short 215]

instant success guaranteed....turn the Avenues into Nana Plaza South ....the place wood be a buzzin' from the get-go

 

 

 

Agreed.

 

I wonder if PattayaPete could turn any of this space into hotel space?

[Parkwahn 61]

I wonder if California Wow will close, they have been selling lifetime memberships :)

[VicVegas 70]

Interesting analysis, but I agree with Rightsaid. Open air shopping in LOS = doom. The only open air shopping that seems to work in LOS are the traditional Thai style markets. People will happily go stomping around and sweating their asses off (and dodging mud puddles after a rain ), looking for bargains at the Soi Buakao market, but they won't go to a modern mall without AC.

 

I remember when the Avenue first opened, the layout just seemed weird to me. It's designed similiar to a mall in downtown Las Vegas, which also has trouble holding on to tenenants. Something about how the stairs and escalators are located. I just got a weird, disorganized vibe when I walked into the place. Notice when you walk into Central Festival or Royal Garden, you feel good about how the place is organized. It's not just the AC. These places have an ambience, a mood, a pleasing feel to them. The Avenue has never had that.