'EMAC’ is the latest word in malls

Press, 17 October 1978, Page 18

'EMAC’ is the latest word in malls

As Managing Director of G.U.S. Wholesalers Ltd, Mr E. G. Stonestreet has to keep up with the latest trends in retailing overseas both to ensure that customers of stores served by his company are served , as well as possible, and to guard against competitors stealing a march on his company by adopting a new technique or Style of retailing before his company does. In the United States, Mr Stonestreet has seen open shopping centres giving way to what Americans, with their passion for abbreviation, are calling EMAC — Enclosed Mall Air Conditioned — cen-

tres. Just as the United States gave New Zealand supermarkets in the first place, so this latest trend in retailing in the United States is coming to have a major influence on the design of New Zealand shopping centres and shopping malls. EMAC malls suit the Convenience and comfort of customers; they also benefit retailers for turnover, understandably, does not fluctuate with changes in the weather, as it tends to with open stopping centres; and, to the benefit of the community, they provide developers with more opportunity to plan aesthetically pleasing,

well-designed and landscaped commercial areas in place of the sometimes sprawling and haphazard shopping centres of the past.

Christchurch already has EMAC shopping centres, although (perhaps thankfully) the word has not caught on here, probably because full air conditioning is not considered really necessary in Christchurch’s climate. The first such mall built in Christchurch by the G.U.S. group was the Barrington Park Mall.

The Hornby Mall, built in two stages, was the second of the EMAC-type developments undertaken

by G.U.S. Properties. The new wing and its supermarket extend the undercover area of the mall which is heated in winter and for which there is provision for air conditioning in summer. Early next year, G.U.S. will expand the enclosed mall at Barrington Street, doubling the mail’s size and providing additional facilities. Beyond that, the company has plans for another centre with 150,000 sq ft of space to be let, about twice the amount of space in any centre completed so far. Negotiations are under way for the purchase of 15 acres elsewhere in the city on

which an even larger mall will be built.

An indication of the popularity of enclosed malls, at least among retailers, is that all the space available for letting in both stages of the Hornby Mall development has been let the day each stage opened. This also points to the efficiency of another arm of the G.U.S. Group — G.U.S. Real Estate — who arranged the letting of space.