[COM] Rundle Mall Redevelopment | $30m

[The Scooter Guy]

Well thanks to our plastic bags laws you need a car to go shopping.

Actually, we have reusable fabric bags & biodegradable 'goodie bags'!

[Wayno]

To back up what i said before, Do all of you carry green bags on you all the time? if you are out somewhere and realise you need a few things from the shop how do you carry them?

Yes. I conveniently wear one on my head, but none of that ghastly green - bright orange is my colour. I also cut some eye holes and the handles fit snuggly in my armpits...

[monotonehell]

To back up what i said before, Do all of you carry green bags on you all the time? if you are out somewhere and realise you need a few things from the shop how do you carry them?

I have one of those green bags that folds and zips up into a small pouch the size of a wallet, I carry one in my 'man-d-bag' at all times, I often go to the supermarket on the way home on the bus. If I happen to be out without, and need to pick up a few things, I have hands that can carry 'a few' things.

[AtD]

one other thing - to get a different perspective on Rundle Mall (eg. from a height), there are very few opportunities in the mall.

Ones I can think of:
- From either of the two car parks on the Rundle St end
- Renaissance Tower
- Adelaide Arcade's second floor
- Various places in the Myer Centre
- There used to be a comic shop that became an Ezy-DVD on the first floor along the southern side in the western half of the mall. There were a few windows you could peer out of. I have no idea who the tenant currently is.

Has anyone tried from the golf range atop the ex David Jones building (Spotlight, JB Hi Fi)?

[Nathan]

To back up what i said before, Do all of you carry green bags on you all the time? if you are out somewhere and realise you need a few things from the shop how do you carry them?

No, not always. Either I stuff what I can in whichever bag I have, or I dig really deep and pay a whole 15c for a plastic one.

[Omicron]

A facelift for Rundle Mall will inevitably result in a unified, shopping centre-esque consistency of design, and that's exactly what I don't want in town. I prefer to shop in Rundle Mall for the simple fact that it's far, far more diverse that enclosed centres, and is rarely as numbingly constant - the weather changes, the buildings change, the people change, the sounds and smells change. There's a structured chaos, if you will, which is why I remain somewhat wary of large Rundle Place-type developments removing the essence of what makes city shopping unique.

In any case, I'm still waiting on the sales revenue figures for Rundle Mall before I'll countenance any notion that it is on death's door. Without those, this article is nothing but idle speculation.

[Vee]

Photo of a very busy and congested Rundle Street in the pre-Mall era, Christmas 1970, courtesy of an Adelaide Now gallery.
Dead mall walking.
http://ow.ly/wwtN

I prefer to shop in the Mall too. There is diversity in the Mall - buildings, people, experiences.
The large and relatively sterile and ultra modern suburban shopping centres leave me cold.

[Nathan]

Photo of a very busy and congested Rundle Street in the pre-Mall era, Christmas 1970, courtesy of an Adelaide Now gallery.
Dead mall walking.
http://ow.ly/wwtN

I prefer to shop in the Mall too. There is diversity in the Mall - buildings, people, experiences.
The large and relatively sterile and ultra modern suburban shopping centres leave me cold.

Agreed. Reminds me of the great slogan they're using for the current campaign at The Rocks in Sydney - "120 shops not all under one roof".

Malls are groomed and controlled by one body (Be it Westfield or someone else) and it's all by their rules. Quirky independant shops that spring out of nowhere are non-existant. It's just chain store, after franchisee after chain store. Truly great shopping areas are a mixture of things you're looking for, and things you can stumble across. Things you've always known are there, things that are new, and things that have been hiding for years until you took a different route.

[AtD]

I don't think the managers of the Mall truly grasp that their competitive advantage is their uniqueness compared to the generic suburban Westfield.

For example, the decision to play music in the mall. It detracts from the ambiance more than it adds to it, in my humble opinion. It's especially bad when they're playing the same dozen Christmas carols you hear in every other shop in the country.

[rhino]

Yes. I conveniently wear one on my head, but none of that ghastly green - bright orange is my colour. I also cut some eye holes and the handles fit snuggly in my armpits...

Is that You? I was wondering who that might be!

[rhino]

Photo of a very busy and congested Rundle Street in the pre-Mall era, Christmas 1970, courtesy of an Adelaide Now gallery.
Dead mall walking.
http://ow.ly/wwtN

I don't remember Rundle Street being a one-way road - when did that happen?

[Prince George]

I wonder what the point of that photo gallery had been? Some random recent week night the mall wasn't as busy as the christmas rush in 1970 or the opening day? They show pictures of Brisbane's mall to "show us how it's done" there, but the photos were largely empty of people anyway.

Malls are groomed and controlled by one body (Be it Westfield or someone else) and it's all by their rules. Quirky independant shops that spring out of nowhere are non-existant. It's just chain store, after franchisee after chain store. Truly great shopping areas are a mixture of things you're looking for, and things you can stumble across. Things you've always known are there, things that are new, and things that have been hiding for years until you took a different route.

By my recollection, there is a lack of independent or quirky stores along the mall, and I think that the enemy here is high rent. It costs so much to have a store in that location, the only places that can afford to be there are chains with deep pockets. Perhaps a solution may involve some deep subsidy to the kind of business that we're talking about. For example, some small properties are made available for a much reduced rent, perhaps only for short time frames (say a year?) to give places where those interesting businesses can get a foot-hold.

There's an example of the kind of thing that I'm thinking of on Chapel Street by the name of Design a Space. This is a place that gives "an opportunity for independent Australian designers to rent out a high profile retail space". I find it very interesting that this operation is provided by a Melbourne fashion designer, who by doing so is effectively giving a leg-up to potential competitors. So big props to Rebecca and Chris Lutz for taking a long-view for the whole design community.

Now if DJs and Myers want to see some "Pimp my mall" action, I want to see them giving something back like this. And I don't mean renting out obscure tucked away locations deep in the bowels of their dread fortresses, but visible street-level locations. And injecting some cool back into the mall would help each of them anyway.

[Nathan]

And you'd be right, there is definitely a lack of independent and quirky stores in Rundle Mall. Rundle St fares better, but only a little. Some way of encouraging smaller startups is quite possibly the solution - whether it be reduced rent, or subsidising other expenses.

Perhaps they should also allow small street vendors, particularly with food. I know they have a few kiosks, but why not let someone with a cart sell corn on the cob, or other such quick grab food. Manage them in a similar way to how they manage buskers. Would probably help with the night time liveliness as well.

[crawf]

The question should be is The Advertiser dying?

= Yes

[skyliner]

Increase the CBD population - problem solved...

Here, here!

Ditto!! BTW - is'nt it hear, hear!

ADELAIDE - TOWARDS A GREATER CITY SKYLINE