We live in an apartment overlooking the second largest shopping mall in Asia – the Mid Valley Megamall in Kuala Lumpur – which is a bit of a worry when you have a wife who is a shopaholic (I guess most wives fall into that category). Mid Valley often promotes itself as the largest shopping centre in Asia, but I always put that down to marketing hype because the SM Megamall at Ortigas in Manila has always been larger.
However my worries were heightened this weekend (in terms of impact on my credit card) when Mid Valley opened an extension called The Gardens which doubled its size – now properly making it the largest shopping mall in Asia. I had a browse through the new section yesterday morning. It’s nice and airy, and more upmarket than the older section (lots of leather armchairs for weary shoppers to rest their feet), but it’s all designer stores – women’s dresses, shoes, bags, etc. – so I don’t think I’ll be shopping there much myself.
KL has so many upmarket shopping centres these days – Suria KLCC, Star Hill and the new Pavilion mall in Jalan Bukit Bintang which also opened this weekend – that you wonder where all the money comes from to support the multitude of designer stores. Perhaps they survive on the patronage of the Arab tourists that come here over the summer months and spend up big in those stores. The rest of the year they look half deserted most of the time.
However my worries were heightened this weekend (in terms of impact on my credit card) when Mid Valley opened an extension called The Gardens which doubled its size – now properly making it the largest shopping mall in Asia. I had a browse through the new section yesterday morning. It’s nice and airy, and more upmarket than the older section (lots of leather armchairs for weary shoppers to rest their feet), but it’s all designer stores – women’s dresses, shoes, bags, etc. – so I don’t think I’ll be shopping there much myself.
KL has so many upmarket shopping centres these days – Suria KLCC, Star Hill and the new Pavilion mall in Jalan Bukit Bintang which also opened this weekend – that you wonder where all the money comes from to support the multitude of designer stores. Perhaps they survive on the patronage of the Arab tourists that come here over the summer months and spend up big in those stores. The rest of the year they look half deserted most of the time.