Westfield Glenfield

Due to working on the North shore recently — I have been visiting Glenfield Mall for errands, and been pleasantly surprised on the their new facelift! There is heaps of parking free for 90 minutes and you can generally get everything done in this time. Not the easiest mall to find buried in suburban streets! All the retail banks (ANZ, Kiwibank, ASB, Westpac) are on the ground floor, lots of $ 2 shops, 2 Countdowns (lol) and the food court is upstairs on the first floor. They have a Warehouse too… for everything else. Generally, the people are outgoing and obliging. I recently purchased 70 metres of silver tinsel and they were very helpful! So if it’s local or you’re in the area — go shopping!

glenfield mall is awesome. I know albany is ‘bigger and better’ but it just so crowded and that sucks.

My urbanist side really does hate malls, they’re so bloody dull! They suck the life out of the surrounding streets. Westfield Glenfield is my least favourite one. It’s just this giant beige box that is 80% car parks and 20% chain stores. It clearly didn’t occur to them that people might want to walk the streets — the whole building turns its back and presents its hindquarters (aka the gigantic fugly car park) to the world as some kind of «fuck you» to anyone on foot. Seriously the whole building is just a giant machine for processing car movements with a few shops and fast food outlets thrown in as an afterthought. What a clusterfuck. In saying that, this giant beige box does contain a few shops that are useful to me and it’s pretty close to my house so I do have to visit it at times. However if you must go to a mall on the Shore, go to Albany — I dislike it for similar reasons to Glenfield, but it has a far superior range of shops.

I must admit I don’t come here as often as I used to because Albany Mall is now my local. But after my latest visit I’ve realised I should visit a hang of a lot more often! Glenfield Mall is filled with shops you just don’t see everywhere else. There are chain stores in there like Cotton on and EB Games (of course) but there’s also a few little gems inside that don’t also live in every other mall. These are the shops like AJ Pop, Blueberry and Amy’s. Shops like these are key for finding a one off special dress or stumbling across something cool that no one else will be wearing. Glenfield also has a pretty legit food court and an awesome little play area for the kids. It may not be as big as Albany but it’s got some good stuff inside.

In my next life I’m going to be a rich property developer, I’m going to be the person that will bring shopping back to the people, and far away from those boring old farts who started the idea of franchising.
There are so many ways to develop shopping malls and market areas without having to make them all look the same. I absolutely detest Westfield Malls, they are all the same. Same shops selling the same shit. Why can’t they develop a mall with individual stores, selling unique items with a hint of creativity; no, nope and a big fat Nada!!! All we get is homogonous aisles of tripe.
How does Glenfield Westfield differ from any other Westfield Mall? All I do know is that these malls are so profitable that the management can sell all the space to their big ticket tenants without lifting a finger.
So the fault lies with me, I’m the one that is in the minority, I’m the only one wanting creative independent stores. Please High Street, don’t change, I love you just the way you are.