Death of a Shopping Mall: A Rant

[onelilley 6]

Great post.

 

I have seen the Avenue go tits up like all of us. I liked it when it first opened, nice and open, the outdoor bar was a good concept for an ale and a listen to the band with the some friends on occassion for an hour or two.

 

I remember walking through one day and seeing the rear middle part being used as a clearance market of sort for clothes etc, then those little stands with bangles, ear rings etc started moving in. I said to a friend "where will this end" as it was growing almost daily. It is now a complete shambles, I cannot believe they have any tenants in the rear at all, I'm sure many more will get out of dodge the minute their leases are up.

 

There is no way McDonalds in Australia would cop having the shit cluttering their entrances like they do now at the Avenue. The management really have stuffed the whole Aveneue and deserve to have no tenants, I'm sure before too long there won't be many left.

[ingo67 8]

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.

 

 

As a couple of others have said - MAJOR design flaw is no AC from shop to shop - DOOMED from the start.

Why would you walk around there in 35C heat when you could go to Royal Garden. Farang didn't like getting hot, and certainly Thais with money didn't either.

When Central came along, another big nail in the coffin.

Afternoon/night market - final nail.

 

Some of those restaurants on the upper floors held on admirably for a good 18mths to 2 years - I bet some of them never saw more than a dozen customers, ever.

 

It will probably decline for a few more years and then be knocked down and another condo built.

 

Good review from the OP.

[Obsession 571]

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.

.

Agreed. And it's was a confusing layout. I think you had to buy tickets for the cinema on a different level from the entrance. And the cinema was freezing.

 

And the paving slabs they had at first had to be lifted because they were slippy, so the place looked like a building site.

 

The Heineken beer garden space with live music was weird

 

Shops like "Whittards of Chelsea" or whatever, were bound to fail. And who would drink in Shenanigans? It was hooker free!!!!!!!

 

It was just shit. Nothing to do with the new mall , imho.

 

How is the new Central mall doing? It was quiet in bits, the last trip.

[lovedog100 1,372]

I'm amazed that no one has mentioned California Wow and their sales people out front that attack you as you go by, and refuse to go away. Who would buy a gym membership from a lady boy, or a queer anyway? I will stop and eat at Villa market before going to see a movie. However, we walk the long way around because my girl friend hates walking by the California Wow people. Truthfully, I don't care much for walking by either.

[lovedog100 1,372]

I'm amazed that no one has mentioned California Wow and their sales people out front that attack you as you go by, and refuse to go away. Who would buy a gym membership from a lady boy, or a queer anyway? I will stop and eat at Villa market before going to see a movie. However, we walk the long way around because my girl friend hates walking by the California Wow people. Truthfully, I don't care much for walking by either.

[Skate 9]

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

 

Yep, that's a great idea. That would chase away the McDee and Starbucks income. Then replace them with Club Blu style places with those big windows.

 

I hate walking through the vendors at night.

[Lucky 47]

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

There have been rumors that they were about to close at any time for years but they are like the Energiser Bunny, they just keep on going.

[Ergodyne 19]

What always got to me was going to the cinema, the box office was on one level and the cinema itself two floors up.

Having got your ticket you then had to go on an adventure to try to find the entrance.

 

Maybe it will end us as an elaborate condo complex.

[teelack 9,645]

Thanks for taking the time. I always enjoy keeping up with whats going on in Pattaya.

[plahgat 523]

They were doomed since day one!

A non-aircon Shopping Mall in 35 degrees heat!?

Although it stands on a big space there aren't that many shops to draw the crowds either.

Front shops might be doing OK, but behind it's all dead.

 

Plahgat

[blacknight 5]

Whilst I agree with almost all the OP says it was always going to suffer in the light of Central Festival, but everybody has. Big C north pattaya is also a shadow of it's former self and they are part of the same outlet group.

 

Give it another few years with the rumoured MBK Pattaya and Siam Paragon both taking prime beach front positions and some of the earlier mentioned business's will have even more trouble.

[MeGoDanceNow 4,281]

Just went back there today (I often have a coffee at the Starbucks there) and saw what was up with the movie theater.

 

They moved the ticket area from the second to third floor -- to a MUCH smaller space. Instead of hogging the center of the second level, it's just a tiny counter inside the bowling alley now. (The second floor is now a kind of mini TukCom, selling mobile phones)

 

I think the only reason they bother having any presence on the third floor is that if they put ticketing at the top floor the punters will give up before they've finished climbing the escalators to the fourth floor.

[DjMiami 18]

As with all retail . You are only as good as your advertizing. Smart idea when they allowed discount retail to set up shop over the domain retail.

[Bazle 1,500]

The lack of AC, and the lack of visibility from the road for many of the units, are big problems.

 

It doesn't stand a chance competing with Central or even Royal Garden. It needs to find a niche area; if the rumour of units decamping from Tukkom to there is correct, that might be the niche.

 

Villa Market has got it right. It is more expensive there than at, say, Big C but they are aiming at the falang market, particularly the falangs living in the condos behind The Avenue on Soi 15, Second Road.

[Ergodyne 19]

Someone mentioned that Tuk-Com had raised there unit rent, i was in there this afternoon and noticed several stalls were closed (holiday i suspect) but several more had removed their stock and presumably relocated, to Avenue maybe.

[jacko 8,822]

Good rant LDK an spot on.

I have been decrying this 'let's please the tourists with another market' policy for a while.

As I walked about getting nowhere fast on NYE trying to get to a GGB, being impeded by gawping shoppers, I pondered that Pattaya is heading from Monger Central to Market hall.

You can't enjoy a walk down the beach rd, you have to step into the gutter in front of TOPS, more of Carrefour carpark vanishes, the aisles get narrower in the mall. They all sell the same crap and are not worthy of looking. Pattaya City planning really is choking the place down.

Edited January 3, 2011 by jacko

[Malakor 17]

Actually, there is a thread on another forum where an obvious investor is extolling the virtues of the place once it re-opens. Nice to see we take a more realistic and contrarian view over here at PT!

Edited January 3, 2011 by Malakor

[MeGoDanceNow 4,281]

Good rant LDK an spot on.

I have been decrying this 'let's please the tourists with another market' policy for a while.

As I walked about getting nowhere fast on NYE trying to get to a GGB, being impeded by gawping shoppers, I pondered that Pattaya is heading from Monger Central to Market hall.

You can't enjoy a walk down the beach rd, you have to step into the gutter in front of TOPS, more of Carrefour carpark vanishes, the aisles get narrower in the mall. They all sell the same crap and are not worthy of looking. Pattaya City planning really is choking the place down.

 

 

That's true. It's happening everywhere in this town now -- there are fewer and fewer spaces to walk. The night market killed Patpong, I fear it'll do the same to Walking Street. They've had occasional "street markets" on WS for special occasions (nothing special about what they're selling, you can buy exactly the same crap anywhere from Siracha to Rayong) but so far nothing permanent. Hope the shit on WS goes away and they take away the dancing children and smoking cowboy with them.

[maipenrai 476]

Good rant LDK an spot on.

I have been decrying this 'let's please the tourists with another market' policy for a while.

As I walked about getting nowhere fast on NYE trying to get to a GGB, being impeded by gawping shoppers, I pondered that Pattaya is heading from Monger Central to Market hall.

You can't enjoy a walk down the beach rd, you have to step into the gutter in front of TOPS, more of Carrefour carpark vanishes, the aisles get narrower in the mall. They all sell the same crap and are not worthy of looking. Pattaya City planning really is choking the place down.

 

Too true, it's a pain in the ass trying to negotiate the sidewalks and half the time I walk on the street itself to make time; what annoys me is the shoppers who stop right in the middle of the sidewalk to galk at stuff as if no one else in the world existed and totally jam things up.

 

Later on NYE when I went from Walking St back to the Soi 6 area I walked right down the middle of Beach Rd between the cars, dodging motorbikes all the way - it seemed to be the only way to make any real progress.

[chris2004 67]

I used to really enjoy having a drink by the 'lake' at the Avenue listening to the band but those bloody stalls, they are so close together it's almost impossible just to walk through to the back area. It could have been so good but as the OP said they have fucked it up.

[helloitsme 251]

Maybe it's only me, or maybe it was because it was the holiday season, or maybe bacause they had the bar and band back in the middle, but there seemed to be less market stalls over Xmas than in August. However, there were some round the back in the carpark over Xmas where there weren't over the summer. Wherever, they are a nightmare to walk through, especially with the uneven surface...

 

As a piece of architecture I like it. Is it right for Thailand. No. As others have said there's no way people want an open air shopping centre in that heat. I watched the new "cubicles" take shape on the 1st floor (that is one up from where the market is!) and hope that they take off. However, they are effectively in the open air...with no aircon...

 

As you look from 2nd road, the McDs, Starbucks, Alan Bolton, Wineshop, Boots and banks side, at the front, seems to work. To the rear, and the right side, and upstairs has never worked.

 

As someone said above, it would be a great place for a Nana South. However, I have read somewhere that there is a clause forbidding this.

[jacko 8,822]

Walking around in Pattaya is getting hard with the ever increasing traffic.

The over utilisation of places with passing trade as display area for sellers forces you into the paths of coaches the size of battleships.

I also feel nervous walking down say Soi 7 or 8 as I know motorcycles are whizzing up behind me and I feel they derive great pleasure from buzzing me.

One of the great plusses for me was when they finished the beach side of beach rd, and suddenly there was this really pleasant, shaded by coconut trees, 'avenue' to walk down, no motorcycles or hawkers, unlike the slow progress likely across the street. You could get one foot infront of the other, move along with the Beer Garden and TV screen your target ahead, the sea lapping to your right.

You can't sit on Soi LK Metro without hawkers bugging you either, like the old days of the beer bars.

 

Market stalls with 3 ft between them and NO way of bypass is hopelss, like the odd number side of Sukhumvit in Bangkok, or the Patpong market. Is this really what the tourists from Russia and India fly 1000s of miles for?

Edited January 4, 2011 by jacko

[MeGoDanceNow 4,281]

Oh happy day!

 

I just walked from the Gardoons to Walking Street this evening along Beach Road, just after sunset, and all the hawker stalls are gone. Guess it was just a high-season annoyance. The malecon is once again clear, just the usual Coconut Bar girls and "Boat! Island!" guys along the way. Saints be praised!

 

Now if they'd only clear them away from the Avenue...

Edited January 4, 2011 by LadyDrinkKing

[jacko 8,822]

Oh happy day!

 

I just walked from the Gardoons to Walking Street this evening along Beach Road, just after sunset, and all the hawker stalls are gone. Guess it was just a high-season annoyance. The malecon is once again clear, just the usual Coconut Bar girls and "Boat! Island!" guys along the way. Saints be praised!

 

Now if they'd only clear them away from the Avenue...

So high season is officially over? The Expats can emerge, don a baggy shirt and flip flops and start bargain hunting again?

[JohnnyK 28]

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

 

Some things are just unforgivable.

Yes, my sentiments exactly. I loved the old rice-barn Ventiane. Who gives a shit if a mall goes down?