Last weekend, I was attempting to give my dog a haircut on my own, as it was coming to the end of the month and I was too monetarily challenged (in other words, too pokai) to take my shaggy little cocker spaniel to the professional groomer I usually bring her to.
So after struggling to keep Cookie still for 10 minutes, as she made it clear she would rather lick me and gnaw on my knuckles, I finally gave up.
I decided to go shopping instead. What better time to go shopping than when you’re broke and covered with dog drool and fur?
So off I traipsed to the two latest malls in town, bringing along my plastic money (credit cards, not board game tokens) just in case. Which turned out to be the worst mistake I have made in my life thus far, next to the time I mistook the bottle of citric cleaning solution my father kept in the kitchen for fruit juice.
Okay, so how do The Gardens and Pavilion stack up against each other?
1) Pavilion looks very swanky but they don’t have any goddamn chairs or benches around for tired shoppers to give their tootsies a rest and for bored husbands/boyfriends to sit while contemplating life’s important questions, like why women need more than 5 pairs of shoes to function in life. Thus, shoppers are forced to rest on the steps leading down to the concourse level, which reminds one of the mat rempit-filled steps just outside Sogo. Not classy at all if you’re a Mak Datin in a Pucci dress and Jimmy Choos.
The Gardens, on the other hand, has lots of big, cozy-looking armchairs scattered around. But peculiarly enough, foliage is hardly anywhere to be seen. I wasn’t expecting a rainforest or anything (1 Utama covered that one already) but for a place that is deceptively called The Gardens, you would at least expect to see more greenery apart from the sad, puny baby trees they have randomly placed around the mall.
WINNER: None. Both are too pretentiously posh, sterile and plant-less for my liking.
2) Pavilion boasts of Parksons and Tangs while The Gardens lays claim to Robinsons and Isetan.
Tangs carries One Teaspoon, one of my favourite labels from Australia. Go check it out - you can get some pretty, chic tops and flirty little dresses going for less than RM150 a pop. Tangs also stocks quite an impressive range of intimates including Morrissey, another personal favourite. I also saw heavily sequinned corsets, pink feather boas and French maid uniforms…So you know where to look now, particularly if you work as a cabaret dancer or as a, er, French maid.
Robinsons has a killer shoe department that also stocks Jessica Simpson’s and J.Lo’s footwear lines.And I must say that the second I stepped foot into Robinsons, sales staff greeted me with a "Good afternoon, how are you, madam?" (Madam! I felt so high-class and Datin-like and…old.) Also, despite being rather crowded, the sales staff were attentive and eager to please. When they didn’t have my size, they *gasp* actually checked the inventory and apologized profusely instead of saying the typical "No stock". Then the sales guy actually gave me his mobile number and asked me to call him whenever I wanted to check arrival of new stocks. And no, he was not hitting on me. And yes, I’m certain because he was a she.
WINNER: The Gardens, thanks to Robinsons. Where customer service is a reality, not a myth.
3) Pavilion’s much-hyped marketplace known as Mercato has only marginally more variety than Cold Storage, which has just opened in The Gardens. I want to see chocolate fountains! And friendly, matronly-looking women dipping apples into toffee! And sausage links hanging above the meats!
WINNER: None. Might as well just go to your neighbourhood Giant.
In conclusion, do we really need yet another soulless shopping complex with no character and no points of distinction? We want style and architecture. We want it to reflect the identity of our city and culture. We want corporations who are not just hungry to convert every cubic inch of space into retail space, but to really invest in a thoughtfully designed, well-planned communal public space for people to shop, play, think and interact.
And we want some fucking plants in there too.