The endless potential of a shopping mall
Love or hate them, malls are irreplaceable. Plus Takeout Kids, pies and bad kids' books.
Kia ora and welcome to The Weekend with Madeleine Chapman
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 on 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.
Made with the support of NZ On Air.
Meet the Anglican bishop fighting fires in his spare time
“When there’s any kind of crisis you want to be there and help,” says Ross Bay, deputy chief of the Auckland Volunteer Fire Brigade. Bay – who is also Anglican Bishop of Auckland – has dedicated his life to helping others, and Z Energy’s Good in the Hood is dedicated to supporting community groups just like his. Read the full story on The Spinoff now (sponsored)
I survived five hours on Christchurch’s first murder mystery train ride
Another entry into the excellent subgenre of Alex Casey trying something unusual in Christchurch and then writing about it. “It was a dark and stormy night, and I had never seen so many fedoras in my life. Christchurch’s Addington Station was bustling with guests dressed to the nines – or should I say the nineteen-thirty-nines – fizzing harder than their complimentary glass of Sherwood Estate Cuvee. What awaited us all was a five-hour immersive murder mystery experience, set to take place on the Tormore Express in the midst of a high society 1930s wedding party.”
A Powerstation show reveals the strange challenges of nostalgia touring
Part reflective essay on aging, part concert review, part feature – Duncan Greive’s trip to see 80s band Ride perform at the Powerstation culminated in a multi-faceted piece of writing that you would only find on The Spinoff. We’re in an unusual period of live performing in New Zealand at the moment, dominated largely by throwback acts as the chart toppers choose to spend their time with bigger crowds in Australia (if they come to this part of the world at all). Explaining the “unavoidable tension” at the centre of the nostalgia touring circuit, Greive writes: “The audience wants the artist to do something that is quite unnatural; something which is on some level antithetical to the modern, pathbreaking origin story of many artists. We want you to transport us back to our youth, by embodying and performing your best impression of your young selves.”
Help me Hera, live on stage, this Thursday
The Spinoff’s advice column, Help Me Hera, has become one of our most popular reads. A year on from its launch, join me and Hera Lindsay Bird live on stage in Auckland to find out if anyone has taken her advice, and if so, how it went.
This event has sold out in Wellington, so make sure you grab your tickets for the Auckland event this Thursday on August 29 at Q Theatre before they sell out! Tickets start at $19.50 (plus booking fees).
The Spinoff Essay: Forcing the exhale
“I cannot do without thinking what should be innate,” ponders Kristin Kelly in this week’s Spinoff Essay. Reflecting on her experience of being taught how to breathe by a respiratory physiotherapist, Kelly writes: “I cannot do what ‘lesser organisms’ like sharks do through their gills, and worms do through their skin, and the increasingly unwieldy monstera on my dining table does through thousands of tiny stomata on the leaves I have let gather dust.”
The stories Spinoff readers spent the most time with this week
Joel MacManus picks up on a topic of national conversation and gives it a stunning, long form treatment in this week’s Cover Story: Who killed the Johnsonville mall?
Nick Iles introduces us to the remarkable pie shop hidden in a Porirua industrial estate
From the local to the global: Joel MacManus covers Jacinda Ardern’s address at the Democratic National Convention
Hera Lindsay Bird rails against the Funko Pops of children’s publishing, Little People, Big Nightmares
Duncan Greive argues that while Christopher Luxon’s word-mangling gets a lot of media attention, what he’s talking about matters far more
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Recommended reads (and listens) for your weekend
Mermaids, midlife, mothers and Megan Dunn’s new book: Gabi Lardies ponders what the mermaids have to teach us about life.
Dylan Reeve ponders why it’s seemingly impossible to have scam ads removed from Facebook.
Lyric Waiwiri-Smith goes inside the dwindling anti-cycleway movement in one of Auckland’s most effluent suburbs.
A brand new episode of The Spinoff’s politics podcast Gone by Lunchtime sees Toby, Ben and Annabelle dissecting a new poll, a tense week for race relations and why Christopher Luxon keeps mangling his words.
Gabi Lardies takes us behind the scenes of New Zealand’s dwindling supply of plasma in a fascinating long read.
Every week, we ask a New Zealand musician to curate their ideal weekend playlist. This week, Semisi Ma'ia'i, the frontman of Dunedin’s Marlin's Dreaming, shares his picks.
Our panel of illustrious burger experts makes their final picks for Burger Wellington.
For this week’s My Life in TV, acting legend Sam Neill divulges his favourite reality franchise and considers how The Avengers caused sewage problems in Christchurch.
Reader feedback 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.”
Thanks for reading.
— Madeleine Chapman