2 hours ago, bkkgriz said:

I know you are joking, but wouldn't that be great. Maybe the eternal question of how many malls does Bangkok need is being answered. 

Bangkok can't have "too many" malls.  They are oasis of air conditioning, decent public toilets, proper western food, cheap Thai foodcourts and Marks & Spencer (in some).  Build more I say.  Can't wait for Summerhill to open - right on my doorstep in 'midtown'.

 

https://www.facebook.com/summerhillbkk/

45 minutes ago, brewsterbudgen said:

Bangkok can't have "too many" malls.  They are oasis of air conditioning, decent public toilets, proper western food, cheap Thai foodcourts and Marks & Spencer (in some).  Build more I say.  Can't wait for Summerhill to open - right on my doorstep in 'midtown'.

 

https://www.facebook.com/summerhillbkk/

 

That main photo makes the planned development there look like a spitting image of the couple year old Rainhill or Raintree (whatever it's called) community mall located at about Suk Soi 49.

3 hours ago, bkkgriz said:

I know you are joking, but wouldn't that be great. Maybe the eternal question of how many malls does Bangkok need is being answered. 

 

Exactly my point. I would also look forward to the reopening of some of the old khlongs. One thing Bangkok needs for sure is less cars.

 

Yes, I know I am a dreamer.

10 hours ago, brewsterbudgen said:

Bangkok can't have "too many" malls.  They are oasis of air conditioning, decent public toilets, proper western food, cheap Thai foodcourts and Marks & Spencer (in some).  Build more I say.  Can't wait for Summerhill to open - right on my doorstep in 'midtown'.

 

https://www.facebook.com/summerhillbkk/

I agree, more malls is better..also more foreign shops is great to start pricewars. I still haven't seen pricewars to attract customers in BKK, i guess the time is ripe for that now. Just sell products under costprice just to attract loads of customers and sell them much more of course.

 

Stopped by CW today, and if anything, even larger sections of the mall were closed up this time compared to a few weeks ago.  But at least since my original post, they've made the obviously needed improvement of posting signage that explains what they're doing on all the wallboard sections covering up the closed shops. Before, weeks ago, all those wallboards were just vaguely decorative without any information on them at all.

 

Here's what it looked like today. A lot of people in the mall on a Sunday afternoon, even though huge swathes of stores and restaurants that used to be open there are now gone and closed (at least for the time being).

 

 

 

 

Some of the stores have been temporarily relocated, but the signage is very limited so very few people know where!!

1 minute ago, brewsterbudgen said:

Some of the stores have been temporarily relocated, but the signage is very limited so very few people know where!!

 

There are directional arrows on the wallboards pointing the directions to different shops. But I couldn't tell/have no way to know whether those listed on the boards are simply how to get to the remaining shops that are still open in their original locations, or whether any of those listed are for shops that have been relocated.

 

Given the vast amount of space that's currently boarded up, the mall couldn't have relocated very many out of the total impacted.

 

I reckon there's two reasons :

 

1.Thai economy is a lot worse than the official figures suggest, with household debt hitting spending for ordinary Thais ( though the rich are still holding up nicely). 

 

2.Thais like 'new', and CW is looking old.

 

So general spending is down, and newer malls like Emquarter are taking business from CW.

 

And Emquarter, Paragon and T21 all have better connections to the BTS and less confusing parking areas.

 

And what's with the toilets in CW?   You seem to walk out of the mall, through the warehouse, and into a factory washroom?

 

 

Just a bit of an update, since I started this thread almost a year ago now.

 

After spending some time in CentralWorld this afternoon, I just like to humbly offer that the interior of CentralWorld still remains a mess all these months later, despite prior promises that the renovation work would be completed by the end of last year or early this year.

 

Still large areas where the retail space is boarded up, floor areas torn up and covered with temporary wood panel, and lots of areas of general disarray. Not the whole mall, but sizeable sections throughout the mall. Needless to say, nothing ever gets done on schedule in Thailand. But from the look of things today, they're still nowhere near to completing the CW project and having things back to "normal."

 

One of the really annoying things for me is going there looking for businessess/shops that I buy from frequently, and finding everything gone and their former area replaced by a plain white wall. And as a customer, you have no idea what that means. Has your favorite shop abandoned CW, or moved elsewhere in the mall, or taking a hiatus until their space is restored. And the mall gives you no clue of what's going on.

 

I'm not sure what exactly the vision is for this new version of CW. It looks like they're trying to make room for and expand the space for a lot of little so-called pop-up stores/shops out in open spaces of the mall. And maybe when all is done, it will be nice. But right now, it has more of the impression that they're turning it into a kind of Thai flea market.

 

On 7/2/2017 at 8:51 PM, shadowofacloud said:

 

Exactly my point. I would also look forward to the reopening of some of the old khlongs. One thing Bangkok needs for sure is less cars.

 

Yes, I know I am a dreamer.

I am pretty sure that when I visited Jim Thompson's house in 1978 I was struck how nice the house was and how disgusting the smelly khlong at the back of the house was. And now I see that the khlong at the back is the navigable Saen Saep canal.

 

Or am I just dreaming?

Malls for me here are OK for merely wandering round or going to the stores you already know about.  Looking for an outlet that you don't already know about, be prepared for some foot-slogging!  Never ceases to amaze me how companies trying to sell products make it so difficult for customers to find them.  Check their own websites and their store locator info will likely be 'Emporium'.  And what floor might the outlet be on?  Unit number? Or with the likes of Em Quartier, which section even.  Of course you can always use (the often sparsely placed, if any at at all) info boards / maps but good luck with them being up to date and reflecting reality.  Sometimes the info desks (if you can find one) or security might know, mostly I find the staff at other stores more useful in that regard.  And, as has already been mentioned, the scatter gun approach to store placement.  This could all change of course with the newly refurbished and renovated CW, due to open December 2017.  Some how, I doubt it! 

Airport Plaza mall is now doing a revamp. So it is a Central Group thing, although not easily understood how many of shops at CW can survive, that is if they aren't washing money.