Madeleine Chapman looks back on the week and fondly remembers her shopping mall experiences.
Some of my fondest childhood memories are set in the mall. Being given $20 and let loose in WestCity when visiting family in Henderson for the holidays; going to Reading Cinemas in Porirua’s North City then hanging around the food court for hours finishing our popcorn; taking exactly 1x trip to Westfield Lower Hutt with my dad to somehow buy Christmas presents for every single family member in under an hour; being introduced to Indian cuisine through the barely-Indian mall butter chicken and realising there was a whole other world out there.
There’s a beauty in shopping malls as a third place. They bring so many people together while at the same time offering a (usually literal) escape from the outside world. A good shopping mall is like a casino. You enter and you’re in a fluid space where time passes differently and priorities are turned upside down. There are certain foods I will only ever eat in a mall and that’s how it should be.
The fact that they’ve long been the town square for teenagers (those perpetually broke new adults) suggests an accessibility that few other places besides parks have. And parks don’t have the option of buying a random notebook on a whim.
Shopping malls offer so much and yet the demise of the mall continues. This week, we published Joel MacManus’s longform feature “Who killed the Johnsonville mall?”. The feature focuses on Johnsonville Shopping Centre, the stain that’s preventing the Wellington suburb from reaching its full potential. Joel spent a day in the mall, talking to the (few) regulars and a number of business owners frustrated by the diminishing foot traffic and the perceived lack of investment from the mall’s owners into developing the space. It’s a strangely beautiful portrait of unfulfilled potential.
Included in the article are images from previous failed development proposals. Beautiful renders of multi-storey complexes housing cinemas, retail, food and even apartments. Such renders feel like salt in the wound, yet another reminder of what’s possible but what is rarely a reality.
Of our current shopping malls, few (if any) have managed to hit the sweet spot of offering up the best of a mall without destroying the soul of its customers. Sylvia Park is the biggest and technically offers the most but you’ll be dead inside by the time you crawl into a parking spot and make the trek to the entrance (that’s not a real entrance because it’s a weird indoor-outdoor hybrid). Newmarket Westfield is equally broad in its range but so confusing to navigate you’re guaranteed to get lost at least twice each visit. There’s something appealing about the mid-sized offering of St Luke’s, where I, until recently, visited once a month for a haircut at Just Cuts, an eyebrow threading across the way and a butter chicken lunch. A 10/10 Saturday morning experience.
Perhaps there is no such thing as a perfect mall, or maybe it was only possible in 2004. Perhaps the future is in something else entirely and malls will be gone entirely in my lifetime. But whatever it is will have a lot to live up to, for without shopping malls we will be once step closer to full isolation.
This week’s episode of Behind the Story
Documentary maker Julie Zhu is the director of Takeout Kids, an observational series following five children as they work and grow up in their parents’ shops. The series is beautiful, both in the stories it tells but also literally, with a focus on scene-setting and stunning cinematography. Julie joined me on Behind the Story this week to talk about how she finds the narrative threads within hours and hours of footage, and the special considerations required when filming with young people.
Watch Episode of Takeout Kids one now
Meet Priyan, who keeps the counter and stock in check at his family’s superette and bulk food store in Auckland. It’s his first week of school, and in class Priyan gravitates to the toy shopfront not unlike his parents’ own, where he plays the pretend version of the job they do for real. Follow Priyan as he deals with lessons in ABCs, cricket and making friends with the return of Takeout Kids. Watch now on The Spinoff or on YouTube.
So what have readers spent the most time reading this week?
Comments of the week
“I drive the trains for Metlink and every time I arrive at Johnsonville station I can’t help but despair at the view in front of me. A vast empty carpark bordered by incredibly tired and pathetic buildings, but a plenty of activity and action occurring just beyond the border. The tall, high density mixed use development would work perfectly in that spot – it’s already next to frequent rail and bus connections and anyone living there could walk to everything they need within a handful of minutes.”
“I’d switch August and October around. August is still cold and nothing really happens. October is supremely underrated. It’s warming up but not too hot – perfect for hikes. It also has a surprise public holiday (Labour Day) and it’s only real downside is spring allergies.”
Pick up where this leaves off
Sign up for my weekly Saturday newsletter, which includes more handpicked recommended reading, watching and listening for your weekend.
Discussion about this post