28) Erina Fair
Erina Fair is a very large shopping centre, with three supermarkets, three big department stores, a cinema, a skating rink, a library, a gymnasium, a post office and goodness only knows how many restaurants, clothes and shoe shops. There are chemists, banks, jewellers travel agents, bookshops, sports shops, hairdressers, furniture stores, butchers, fish shops, mobile phone shops and shops that just sell sunglasses. There are doctors’ offices, along with opticians and hearing aid specialists, all doing at least enough business to pay the rent and the staff. It is no wonder when we first came to Australia we thought that all Australians must be very wealthy and that there was no poverty whatsoever in this country.
There are a couple of “Eateries”. How Jonny hates that word. A number of shops selling different kinds of food all clustered together around a central space for tables and chairs. The clients buy their meal form whichever type of food they fancied. Hamburgers, or Fish and Chips, Salads or Kebabs, Portuguese or Chinese and sit at any of the tables to eat it. We thought this was a great idea. If four people went out to eat together and one wanted a Hamburger another a Chinese meal another some salad and the forth wanted Fish and chips they did not have to argue about where they would eat. They could all buy the food they wanted and still sit together to eat. Once when Dominic came to the Central Coast on business he called into the Fair and took us to lunch. He introduced us to Kebabs. To me a Kebab was pieces of diced meat and vegetables on a wooden skewer and cooked. The Kebabs that Dominic bought us were very different. Large savoury pancakes piled high with slices of meat and all sorts of vegetables with a very tasty sauce poured over then the pancake is rolled up and tucked in at the ends. Very tasty! Yes “eateries” are a great idea; it was just the name that we did not like. Eatery sounds such a made up word.
The amount of ladies clothes shops amazed me. Who was going to buy all those cloths? There were quite a few cloths shops that only sold very dressy cloths. Racks and racks of elegant and expensive dresses but everywhere we looked we saw the Australian women dressed very casually. I know we don’t go out at night much but the people I have spoken to about this say that the ladies don’t often dress up to go to the theatre or to a club so I have always been puzzled how those shops stay in business.
Other shops that puzzled me were the sunglasses shops. How many pairs of sunglasses does one have to sell to pay the rent, which isn’t cheap I’m sure. But there are a number of shops in The Fair that sell sunglasses and nothing else so there must be lots of people buying sunglasses. Maybe they keep loosing them and have to replace them often.
That also makes me think of the shops that sell electronic equipment. The other day we got a catalogue for one such shop popped into our letterbox. As I paged through it I was amazed to see how many television sets there were on offer. Just out of curiosity I counted the different models, there were 32 of them. Ranging form a few hundred dollars right up to the enormously expensive $8000 one. I expect that each branch of that chain of stores has to have at least one, maybe more, of all they have on offer and the chain has stores most fair sized towns in New South Wales. That’s without the Radios, Hi-Fi Systems, Computers, Digital Cameras, iPods, fridges, stoves, washing machines, and a myriad of other domestic appliances. Imagine how much electronic equipment is sitting on shelves throughout the country, it is a scary thought. All of it will have to be disposed of some day or other.
When they did the latest alterations and extensions to Erina Fair they advertised it as the “Largest Single Level Shopping Centre In the Southern Hemisphere”. When we were living in Durban in South Africa a new shopping Centre called The Pavilion was built and they said that it was the Largest Shopping Centre in the Southern Hemisphere (not on a single level though). I wondered then how does one measure a shopping centre. Is it by the number of shops or the amount of square feet of shop space? Is all the public area included in the size or just the shops? Are staircases, lifts, gardens and playgrounds included in the count? I also think tagging the phrase “in the Southern Hemisphere” on to the end is a bit of a cheek. After all most of the industrialised countries of the world are in the Northern Hemisphere so it does lessen the competition considerably, doesn’t it?
There are a couple of “Eateries”. How Jonny hates that word. A number of shops selling different kinds of food all clustered together around a central space for tables and chairs. The clients buy their meal form whichever type of food they fancied. Hamburgers, or Fish and Chips, Salads or Kebabs, Portuguese or Chinese and sit at any of the tables to eat it. We thought this was a great idea. If four people went out to eat together and one wanted a Hamburger another a Chinese meal another some salad and the forth wanted Fish and chips they did not have to argue about where they would eat. They could all buy the food they wanted and still sit together to eat. Once when Dominic came to the Central Coast on business he called into the Fair and took us to lunch. He introduced us to Kebabs. To me a Kebab was pieces of diced meat and vegetables on a wooden skewer and cooked. The Kebabs that Dominic bought us were very different. Large savoury pancakes piled high with slices of meat and all sorts of vegetables with a very tasty sauce poured over then the pancake is rolled up and tucked in at the ends. Very tasty! Yes “eateries” are a great idea; it was just the name that we did not like. Eatery sounds such a made up word.
The amount of ladies clothes shops amazed me. Who was going to buy all those cloths? There were quite a few cloths shops that only sold very dressy cloths. Racks and racks of elegant and expensive dresses but everywhere we looked we saw the Australian women dressed very casually. I know we don’t go out at night much but the people I have spoken to about this say that the ladies don’t often dress up to go to the theatre or to a club so I have always been puzzled how those shops stay in business.
Other shops that puzzled me were the sunglasses shops. How many pairs of sunglasses does one have to sell to pay the rent, which isn’t cheap I’m sure. But there are a number of shops in The Fair that sell sunglasses and nothing else so there must be lots of people buying sunglasses. Maybe they keep loosing them and have to replace them often.
That also makes me think of the shops that sell electronic equipment. The other day we got a catalogue for one such shop popped into our letterbox. As I paged through it I was amazed to see how many television sets there were on offer. Just out of curiosity I counted the different models, there were 32 of them. Ranging form a few hundred dollars right up to the enormously expensive $8000 one. I expect that each branch of that chain of stores has to have at least one, maybe more, of all they have on offer and the chain has stores most fair sized towns in New South Wales. That’s without the Radios, Hi-Fi Systems, Computers, Digital Cameras, iPods, fridges, stoves, washing machines, and a myriad of other domestic appliances. Imagine how much electronic equipment is sitting on shelves throughout the country, it is a scary thought. All of it will have to be disposed of some day or other.
When they did the latest alterations and extensions to Erina Fair they advertised it as the “Largest Single Level Shopping Centre In the Southern Hemisphere”. When we were living in Durban in South Africa a new shopping Centre called The Pavilion was built and they said that it was the Largest Shopping Centre in the Southern Hemisphere (not on a single level though). I wondered then how does one measure a shopping centre. Is it by the number of shops or the amount of square feet of shop space? Is all the public area included in the size or just the shops? Are staircases, lifts, gardens and playgrounds included in the count? I also think tagging the phrase “in the Southern Hemisphere” on to the end is a bit of a cheek. After all most of the industrialised countries of the world are in the Northern Hemisphere so it does lessen the competition considerably, doesn’t it?
posted by MC @ 4:33 PM
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