Year of the Mall!

'Year of the Mall' could be one thing to call 2008, both for Athens and London.

Last week, the so anticipated Golden Hall opened it's doors to the public in Maroussi, ideally located on Kifissias Avenue and close to Attiki Odos.

Golden Hall expands in 3 levels, which correspond to approximately 41,000 sq. m., contains an underground parking of approximately 1,400 spaces on two levels, as well as an office area of approximately 4,500 sq. m.

The 132 stores of Golden Hall include women, men and children fashion and footwear, accessories, jewellery stores, bookstores, shops of house equipment and decoration, sports, cosmetics, hair dresser’s, gastronomic destinations (restaurants, cafés) etc. Wow!

Earlier, in October, Westfield opened in W12, London, being the largest in-town shopping and leisure destination in Europe!

Aspirational, yet inclusive, it is an architecturally stunning showcase for 5 anchor stores: Debenhams, Next, Marks and Spencer, House of Fraser, Waitrose and over 265 luxury, premium and high street retailers from more than 15 different countries (including Greece: BSB & NO NAME hold own stores).

80 percent are fashion-focused, 16 names are making their UK debut and 40 are luxury brands housed within the beautiful, boutique-style environment, The Village.

Useful / Useless piece of info:

- Construction used enough concrete to fill 117 Olympic swimming pools
- There are 96 escalators
- Some 7,000 jobs will be created
- 80% of shops specialise in fashion
- Retails come from at least 15 different countries
- And over 20 million people are expected to visit each year

As or the last, they can cross me out as one of them. Was there yesterday and I can tell you the place is an absolute shoppers wonderland! They should consider renting rooms in there...

Year of the Mall it is...