Quote:
Originally Posted by Policy Wonk
My concern about Cross Iron Mills remains that many Calgarians are familiar with the Mills Outlets in the US and are going to trek up there expecting Arizona Mills or Ontario Mills (suburb of Los Angeles), market research showed the Mills brand was VERY strong here from travel alone.
If you wander in there with those expectations, what is there is going to suck.
|
Just got back from the fun. Actually to be honest it reminded me heavily of Ontario Mills, minus their palm trees of course. Plus it being western Canada, we have to have such gems as a dollar store.
On traffic: Wow. Getting in was OK, felt like xmas shopping if a bit better. Maybe 5 mins to go from highway to parked. We went a bit earlier than most - looking at Deerfoot northbound, it was backed up at least 2km by 7pm. Surprisingly little traffic coming off Stoney. Getting out? 40 minutes from parking spot to the Hwy 2 overpass. Good thing we had snacks and drinks. Plenty of cops directing traffic and signs everywhere pointing people to the ring road, etc - which was nice to see as I suspect most Calgarians had no idea before today where Centre St went.
On the mall itself: The parking lot was pretty packed but there were lots of spots if you have legs enough to walk. Surprisingly not busy once you got inside; Chinook is much more crowded during the last days of the xmas rush. About the only annoying part was stopping regularly as someone in front of a wave of people stopped to gawk and take pictures (I have none, sorry). The mall does have some "interesting" elements but it's a lot less tacky than I feared. WEM has more stupid stuff by far. Food court is freaking HUGE and packed with people, and some annoying caterwauling which I suspect was designed to motivate people to leave, thereby freeing up seats (this may have been some random "celebrity" from Who Wants to Marry a Dancing American Idol or something, I didn't look).
On the stores: Actually better than I expected. Many, many stores I've never seen outside of larger US centres or maybe Toronto. Neat games/hot tub store that has re-conditioned classic arcade and pinball games (not too many, and insanely overpriced - like $4000 - but still, something different for a mall). Just about all of the stores were not busy at all which made them nice to wander in and out of, but doesn't speak well for business. I bet Saturday will see things pick up as people were clearly playing tourist for the most part.
On the underwear: I have to point this out specifically as I know a lot of you will very soon post "never gonna go there!!". Well, if you have a female in your life, it's worth it just for this alone. The La Senza is huge, and La Vie En Rose is positively MASSIVE, with far, far more selection than I've ever seen in a lingerie shop. If you know a gal who isn't a fan of lacy thongs, but doesn't want to shop Wal-Mart, she will love this mall (yes boys, there is a very large middle ground there contrary to what most shops seem to sell these days). Biggest PJ selection I've ever seen, too.
Other than that, it's a mall. If you're not a mall/chain store shopper then obviously this isn't going to do anything for you. If you are, you definitely should check this out. There are many new stores to Calgary (I've heard 20 but I'd swear it felt like twice that). Many stores claim to be "outlet" stores and while that's technically true, they're not massively discounted as most people think of outlet stores these days. There are a few exceptions - the Nine West outlet was mostly $120 shoes on sale for $30 in the same style they have in US outlet malls. There are a few high end shops that were empty (again, everyone was mostly playing tourists).
Most importantly, Pro Hockey Life is the most awesome shrine to hockey ever.
Prev
Linear Mode
