Canada: From High End to Junk Food

This is the Bowering home decor store (I got the image
from this site), which was torn down to make room
for more of the food court.

The food court is in the background
I got the image [a larger view] from this site.
Here is a larger image

Below are photos I took. They are a little blurry since I didn't want to spend too much time taking photos of people, but I think that actually captures the mediocrity of the place.

Light and airy design, but not appreciated

Multi-Culti Strollers

More Multi-Culti Strollers

For the Low End Palate

[More images of the mall, showcasing its attractive architecture and design, here]

I didn't get too close to the people waking by the pretty pale blue board announcing the beginning of "Delicious" (people don't like their pictures taken by anonymous cameramen), but during the ten minutes or so I was there, 90% of them were non-white. I saw hijabed women, black families, and "modernized" Middle Easterners. One white couple walked past, fast and in a hurry to get to its destination. All the other "patrons" were strolling around, looking at whatever few attractive items remain in the stores.

The area just before the boarded up place is the food court. I just couldn't take a photo of that ugly and depressing area.

In the mall, near the post office and by Old Navy, is a huge Dollar Store, which really means super-cheap Chinese goods (items range from 99 cents to about $10). How can a high class mall stoop so low?

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I've written about deteriorating "suburbia" cities surrounding Toronto. Suburbia used to be a place where middle class families bought their homes, with gardens and picket fences, to avoid the big city, but not to be too far away from it since that is where the fathers worked.

Now, suburbia is becoming a destination for immigrants, who come with some money they saved up for the immigration process from their home countries, but once here lose that money through expenses they hadn't anticipated, like remaining unemployed for long stretches, or being under-employed. This results with insufficient funds with which to raise their families, according to the standards of this country.

Canadian suburbia is becoming (has become?) a dismal, barren place.

The prime example of that, I am convinced, is Mississauga. I will provide data for that as I find it. The census data (from 2006) gives an erroneously high figure (i.e. doesn't correspond to 2012), according to my books.

One way to tell how a city is faring is by looking at the surroundings.

One way is to look at the shopping centers, what they provide, and the clientele that visits them.

I've briefly talked about Square One, the main mall in Mississauga, which touts itself as "the biggest mall in Canada." I wrote here about Square One:

My local mall which used to be a large, pleasant place to visit, with several high end stores, and quite a few restaurants. During the past year or so, I've wondered how these stores sustain themselves. The mall is not as crowed as it used to be, nor as crowded as other malls. And I've speculated that a good number of the goods don't get sold and that some stores must be functioning at a loss.

And described a cash-strung immigrant couple trying to buy a high-end hand bag.

The couple was trying to use a credit card/cash combination to buy the handbag. They had two credit cards, one the woman carried, the other belonging to the man. The woman's card was rejected. They asked the woman at the cashier to check on it, since they thought it should have cleared. This took about five-seven minutes for the cashier to tell them that the card was rejected due to insufficient funds. The answer seemed to satisfy the couple.

I went looking recently for a home decor store The Bowering. I looked and looked (this is the biggest mall in the country, after all, and I always get lost in it), but couldn't find it. Finally, I asked at the information booth and I was told that it had been discontinued. I then remembered all those exorbitant "holiday" sales, of 75% or more, which were actually "going out of business" sales.

I went to the spot to see what was to become of the space. There was nothing up, except a large board covering the whole wall which says:

Delicious is just the beginning. Food Central. Open Summer 2013

I couldn't figure it out, so I asked what that meant. "Oh, it's going to be more food stations." The Bowering was right after the food court in the mall (which I run through as fast as possible, with its unpleasant seating arrangement and unappetizing fast foods).

So that is the slow decline of a once active, attractive shopping mall: bring in the immigrants, then add some cheap, fast food stations they can afford. Then they can wander through the mall, using it like a street they would stroll through, window shopping at nothing, and have a $3.99 McChicken for energy.

I took photos of the closed-down section, partly to show the mall that is still attractive (bright and airy), and the food court which deadens it.