London's Malls

[GreatTallNorth2]

It's kinda too bad they didn't rebuild the theatres to be in the mall. Imagine Westmount with Sears, Target, the theatre complex and the Westmount library? That would be some serious anchors for the mall, and maybe just what it needs to start being relevant again.

[manny_santos]

Zellers Restaurant always creeped me out as well. One time I took a look inside, there were a few seniors sitting around, and the place was a mess. The tables were covered in dirty plates and glasses. No thank you.

Zellers should never have gotten into the restaurant business. Or, they should have been like Wal-Mart and outsourced the in-store restaurant to a chain.

P.S. Does anyone remember the in-store restaurants at Woolco stores? Oakridge Mall had one called Strawberry Street, which reportedly was at some other Woolco stores but not all of them. I'm looking at go_leafs_go02 in particular. As I recall Strawberry Street had bizarre hours and was usually closed when you actually wanted to go in to eat.

[MolsonExport]

I remember Woolco restaurants...some even had soda fountains back in the day. The food tasted like stir-fried shit.

[go_leafs_go02]

Originally Posted by manny_santos

Zellers Restaurant always creeped me out as well. One time I took a look inside, there were a few seniors sitting around, and the place was a mess. The tables were covered in dirty plates and glasses. No thank you.

Zellers should never have gotten into the restaurant business. Or, they should have been like Wal-Mart and outsourced the in-store restaurant to a chain.

P.S. Does anyone remember the in-store restaurants at Woolco stores? Oakridge Mall had one called Strawberry Street, which reportedly was at some other Woolco stores but not all of them. I'm looking at go_leafs_go02 in particular. As I recall Strawberry Street had bizarre hours and was usually closed when you actually wanted to go in to eat.

I moved to Oakridge in December 2000, it was already a Walmart with a McDonalds in there. I remember Woolco a tiny bit back in the day - I was born in 1988, and I think they were converted to Walmart by 1994 or so (so I was 6 years old). I lived in Chatham before I moved to London

so no, I can't help you. Miss that mall - it did quite alright until Walmart moved up to Hyde Park/Fanshawe - although the plaza that remains does quite well and the Superstore is always busy.

[MolsonExport]

Found old photos of the former Oakridge mall

Elvira!

http://www.geocities.ws/mjlarochelle/oakridge/photos/20030924/loblaws.html
http://www.geocities.ws/mjlarochelle/oakridge/photos/20030924/walking.html

more as well

[Snark]

Originally Posted by manny_santos

Inside London Mall yesterday...

Just so no one misses it when it's gone....



Courtesy TVC 15 on Flickr

[new age]

I have had big Ideas for this lot. I would love to see terraced retail on two, or three levels, starting at a high point at the corner of Oxford street, and Wonderland. With wide pedestrian squares, and walkways leading people to the opposite side. The retail facing away from the main corner along an interior street would be a floor lower. All built around a parking garage with two, or three high rise condos rising above. On the opposite side of the interior street there would be low rise apartment, with row houses in behind.

It could have as high as 1000 total units maintaining the retail space it has now, and become a transit knob.

[Simpseatles]

^Nice concept! I've been toying with my own for a little while, and now that I've finally had the time, I decided to do a little map of what I would like to see done. This is just at ground level, so one day I may do some conceptual drawings, or renderings of the towers.


http://s1141.photobucket.com/albums/n596/Simpseatles/

Now that I think of it, I might try similar concepts for the Old South street, and Mental Health Centre sights as well.

[Snark]

I'm appalled that you guys refuse to acknowledge the heritage value of this building. I would suggest the following design, in respect to the great role this site has played in the city's history:

[manny_santos]

Originally Posted by Snark

I'm appalled that you guys refuse to acknowledge the heritage value of this building. I would suggest the following design, in respect to the great role this site has played in the city's history:

I would totally rent an apartment in that place. I'd go for one of the Sears Outlet Suites.

[MolsonExport]

Originally Posted by Snark

I'm appalled that you guys refuse to acknowledge the heritage value of this building. I would suggest the following design, in respect to the great role this site has played in the city's history:

Fabulous addition to the commieblockland of Oxfart and Wonderbread,

[manny_santos]

I took a rare trip into Westmount Shopping Centre today. Three days before Christmas, it was business as usual: most of the patrons inside were Saunders students from across the road. Not a whole lot going on inside. Sears was dead.

Of note, however, is that Tim Hortons is now open on the lower level near Zellers.

[MolsonExport]

^biggest news to come out of Westmount Mall since...they severed Metro/urban planet.

[Wharn]

Westmount mall kinda reminds me of a tired development near my parents' house in Toronto called "Shops on Steeles". There's a number of periphery businesses that are quite popular (Tim Hortons, Chinese restaurants) but the core centre itself is looking really tired. They were planning to revitalize it with a few residential high-rises and a medium-density shopping area a la Don Mills Centre. Perhaps the same thing could work for Westmount? Is anyone willing to do some concept art?

[MolsonExport]

I wonder how much Target will improve Westmount Mall traffic. There currently is very little shuffling occurring between the two anchors. I am still totally confused as to why they guillotined Metro/urban planet from the rest of the mall.

[manny_santos]

Originally Posted by MolsonExport

I wonder how much Target will improve Westmount Mall traffic. There currently is very little shuffling occurring between the two anchors. I am still totally confused as to why they guillotined Metro/urban planet from the rest of the mall.

I can understand making Metro a standalone building as supermarkets today tend to be more of a destination store and aren't generally found inside Canadian malls anymore, but Urban Planet makes no sense. From a marketing standpoint Urban Planet and Metro are not complementary brands; they have different target markets and have unrelated products. Something like an LCBO would be more complementary. I can't see the current arrangement being good for Urban Planet's sales.

I would rather Urban Planet have moved elsewhere in the mall, and Metro expanded. That Metro, by modern standards is a small supermarket, as it has never been expanded since Dominion opened there in 1973. Obviously this means they can't offer the same breadth of products that the much larger Metro in Byron, or the massive Loblaws down the road, offer.

[Simpseatles]

Originally Posted by MolsonExport

I wonder how much Target will improve Westmount Mall traffic. There currently is very little shuffling occurring between the two anchors. I am still totally confused as to why they guillotined Metro/urban planet from the rest of the mall.

I doubt Target will improve Westmount Mall traffic all that much. It's really just a cleaner version of Zellers anyways.

[MolsonExport]

To kill time on a grey, dismal New Year's Day, I decided to visit Gibraltar Weekend Market (At Dundas and Third!). Nothing has changed, except the general decrepitude of the booths, vendors, and customers has somehow gotten worse.

Bob's Ultimate MEEETS!
Get your Dog a Bone!
Di's Fresh Cut Fries.
Places selling used NES-8 game cartridges for $15 each.
Black metal-head tea-shirts.
Used books. Costume jewelry. Junk that even Dollarama wouldn't sell.
Some extremely greasy all-day breakfast (dog's breakfast?) joint.
We pay U cash for y'R Gold.


Good times.


gibraltarweekendmarket.com

Plenty of photos and even a few commercials can be found here:
http://www.gibraltarweekendmarket.com/vendors.html

[ldoto]

RETAILING: Masonville Place says deal not final

By HANK DANISZEWSKI, The London Free Press


Is the Masonville Place mall ripe for an Apple store?

The website IfoAppleStore.com is reporting the hi-tech giant will continue its expansion into Canada, moving into the space now occupied by Eddie Bauer, on the second floor of Masonville Place.

IfoAppleStore.com is an independent site, not associated with Apple Inc.

Apple's ultra-sleek retail stores selling the company's technology products have attracted a cult following and rumours of a new London store have set social networks buzzing. The closest official Apple store is in Waterloo.

Daryl Clemance, general manager of Masonville Place, confirmed the Eddie Bauer store will close when its lease expires at the end of January.

He said the mall is negotiating with a "prominent" retailer to move into that location, but couldn't discuss details because the deal has not been finalized.

But he added, "I'd love to have an Apple (store). Who wouldn't?"

Clemance did confirm Masonville will welcome a prominent new retailer in March when a Forever 21 store opens. The store will be one of the mall's largest, covering 23,000 sq. ft. over two floors with an exterior entrance.

It will be the first Forever 21 store in Southwestern Ontario.

The California-based fashion and accessories stores mainly target young women.

"The anticipation of it opening is quite large," said Clemance.

The Zellers store in the mall will gradually be converted to a Target outlet over the next year. The U.S. retail giant bought Zellers and its 220 stores in a $1.8-billion deal with Hudson's Bay Co.

[MolsonExport]

PLEASE gimme Apple Store. It would be the only reason why I would visit that house of horror known as Masonville Mall.