SHOPPING CENTRE EVOLUTION!

As a new mum, I was blessed with a baby that refused to sleep in his cot for naps during the day.  In order to save my sanity, I found myself wandering the local shopping centres while baby got some much-needed sleep in the pram!  This got me thinking about what parents did before the development of the modern shopping centre?

Where did friends meet for coffee before there were shopping centres?  Where did kids congregate after school?  Shopping centres have become the modern urban equivalent of traditional meeting places (market places, town centres, churches).  Modern centres provide a place to shop, be entertained, eat and gather with friends and have some fun on the weekends.

Many of us take it for granted, and now expect to have access to shopping facilities that are only a short distance from our homes and workplaces.  Yet, you and I know that it wasn’t always like this...

In Australia, the Shopping Centre or Mall phenomenon began at Chermside in Brisbane’s north.  Chermside Drive-In Shopping Centre opened in May 1957 with an Allen and Stark’s department store along with a small arcade of specialty shops. An extension soon followed, based on a model that had emerged in the US, and was completed by the Myer Emporium.  Around the same time, Myer was working on plans for the development of a shopping mall in Chadstone.

CHERMSIDE DRIVE IN (1960)

The concept of a Drive-in centre was summed up as “an island of retailing in a lake of car parking” (Chermside & Districts History Society Inc.)

WESTFIELD CHERMSIDE (Today)

Chermside and Chadstone both changed the way Australians shop and started an industry that now has around 1,350 shopping centres with 55,000 tenants.

These two centres are still going strong today, five decades later, and remain two of the most dominant Shopping Centres in Australia.  Chadstone is the largest and best performing centre in Australia (143,165m2 floorspace and $957.3million turnover in 2008) and Chermside is the ninth largest complex (123,639m2) and ranked fifth in turnover performance.

Shopping centres have evolved from simple basic structures to well-researched complex designs tailored to the demographic of the community within which they are located.  For example, my local shopping centre, Westfield North Lakes, is a wonderful place to shop for parents with children.  The parents’ rooms are clean, spacious and decked out with flat screen tvs, enclosed play areas ideal for parents who have a baby as well as an older child who can run around and play while mum or dad feed baby.  There is a large outdoor play area near the food court, which invites parents to sit and enjoy a coffee while the kids play, as well as a smaller play area indoors.  Westfield even offers a free weekly fitness program run by a personal trainer for new mums (strategically scheduled for Tuesday, one of the quietest shopping days).  It is therefore no surprise that the surrounding area is dominated by families in the early stage of the family lifecycle.

Social events and displays are commonplace in modern shopping centres and centre management often provide support to their local community through supporting various charities and events.  Centres are also likely to include civic functions and other community facilities like libraries, childcare, pubs and community centres.  Chermside is a good example of a shopping centre that has become the ‘town centre’ for north Brisbane, internalizing many of the traditional town centre uses into the shopping mall (and is now recognised as a Principal Regional Activity Centre within the South East Queensland Regional Plan) with a range of commercial, retail and community uses surrounding Westfield Chermside.

It is clear that shopping centres have evolved into much more than just a place to shop.  They are often a place where people can go to socialise, be entertained and engage with others.  They have become the new town centre or village green and act as communal meeting places, representing the heart and identity of their communities. 

While some may hold the development of enclosed shopping centres to blame for the displacement of traditional main streets, shopping centres must be meeting the needs of the customer and play an important role in our urban environment.  Connecting and having a good understanding of the surrounding community will be key for future activity centre development to ensure the creation of active spaces that provide for not only the basic food and service needs of customers but also the social and emotional needs of residents.

Hannah Seymour
 
Next month – Regional Industry