[size=75:3dbfrimq]Focus news 4 March 2010

Three New Malls Open Doors in Sofia
New trademarks and lucrative discounts to lure customers

Three new malls will open doors in Sofia within a month. Tomorrow, the ribbon will be cut at the huge Sofia Outlet Center where 70 world known companies will sell their goods at a 30- to 70 percent discount. In eleven days shopping maniacs will storm the new Serdica Center, the biggest mall on the Balkans. It will open doors at 8.00 a.m. March 16. Five hundreds customers will get vouchers for special discounts. Thirty new trademarks long expected in Bulgaria will premier at the opening. The last hit will be the opening of a huge Carrefour mall that will spread over 66,000 sqm and will boast 185 shops. If the financial crisis doesn't frustrate the plans of the investors 18 new shopping centers will be opened in Bulgaria till end-year.

someone know something that i dont know, are they expecting some sort of a boom. the mall in varna is quiet everytime ive been, the goods are way expensive like 30 pounds for a pillow, who is buying because i dont see it happening. stores are appearing everywhere yet there is a real crises in the holiday trade that hotels are really struggling. i just dont see it happening here unless anyone can enlighten me, because even the english will not pay those prices.

[size=75:2zoz4dtq]Regal retail news 5 March 2010

Sofia Outlet Center opened on Tsarigradsko Shosse

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Prime Minister Boyko Borisov opened last night in Sofia Outlet Center Tsarigradsko Chaussee in Sofia, BTA reported.

Investment is 100 million leva, and the center will create 1000 jobs in time of severe financial and economic crisis, Prime Minister explained. In Bulgaria managed to balance the budget, continues to attract investment, Borissov said. In his words had problems with the construction of the center, but most were unable to help, so this site will happen in its current form, without either a dollar to be paid in corruption schemes.

Sofia outlet center is the first shopping center, specializes in sales of clothing from old collections. Much of the marks that open stores in outlet centers will be presented for the first time the Bulgarian market. In Sofia Outlet Center are located more than 80 stores and has 500 parking spaces.

[size=85:q702dnvh]Sofia echo 20 April 2010

The Mall in Sofia opens on April 21

The largest retail centre in Bulgaria, The Mall, was opened by Prime Minister Boiko Borissov on April 21, in the presence of Carrefour CEO Christian Sharitat, representative of the investor Assos Capital and the ambassador of France, Etienne de Poncins.

Also present at the inauguration ceremony were Sofia Mayor, Yordanka Fundukova and Regional Development Minister Rossen Plevneliev, a mall media release announced.

The Mall is on 115 Tsarigradsko Chaussee, with a total build-up area of 65 000 sq m, with 185 stores, restaurants, recreations centres, bars, cafeterias and parking capacity for more than 2 800 vehicles, the statement said.

Currently, The Mall is the largest retail centre in the country, consisting of six storeys – three of which are underground.

The Carrefour hypermarket within the The Mall has an area of 9 000 sq m, making it the company's largest in the country.

[size=85:3qpq24h1]Sofia echo 06 May 2010

To The Mall and back

Can one mall be that different from any other? We asked ourselves this question on the way to the recently opened The Mall shopping centre on Sofia's Tsarigradsko Chaussee.

Frankly, neither of us wanted to go there. Not because we had something against such centres, as they do provide many convenient advantages compared to shopping on Sofia's narrow, potholed streets, but because the prospect of joining a throng of thousands of aimless shoppers, piling into lifts, crammed full of bags and packages, was unappealing.

Our strategy on visiting new malls, ever since the first appeared in Sofia in 2006, has been to wait at least a month after the official opening, hoping that the crowds looking for promotional discounts will abate. Let's face it - once you've seen one mall, you've seen them all, regardless of their size. They're all based on the same principle: underground parking accompanied by a retail store, shops on the first, second and third floors, and food and cinema on top. Still, on a rainy Sunday afternoon with nothing to do, The Mall did not seem so unattractive. After all, it has been presented to us as Sofia's biggest mall - as, by the way, all previous such establishments have claimed to be.

So there we were on Tsarigradsko Chaussee driving to The Mall. First, we had to spot the detour taking us to the other side of the boulevard via a special tunnel. Here is a little tip to The Malls management: make the sign bigger because it can barely be seen unless you pay special attention and this, on the busy Tsarigradsko Chaussee, is a challenge. First-time arrivals are advised to look for the McDonald's restaurant as The Mall sign is a few metres ahead of it.

Once in the tunnel we had to wait a couple of minutes to enter the car park;
unsurprising since it was Sunday. Once inside, the several storeys of parking enabled us to find a space easily. Since it was the first weekend after opening, parking was free, helping the cars to move faster. One conspicuous sight in the tunnel was dozens of people carrying similar bags using it as an underground passage (obviously the tunnel was designed specifically for cars), suggesting that something big was happening at The Mall. Note too that entry to the mall (through the tunnel itself) is not particularly friendly to those without cars, especially if coming from the city centre and therefore approaching from the other side of Tsarigradsko Chaussee.

When we entered the underground floor of The Mall we realised what this "
something"
was. This floor is entirely dominated by the Carrefour hypermarket. It's worth a view if only because it's interesting to see hundreds, if not thousands, of people - during a crisis - moving around endless aisles, pushing big trolleys and shopping for sundry goods, from food to TV sets. Frankly, it's a scary sight and the women working at what we counted as more than 30 checkouts have my sympathy. Obviously the 0.08 leva offer for a yoghurt had encouraged customers.

Since buying yoghurt was not our goal, we decided to spare ourselves the Carrefour jungle and move to the top floor. Here we encountered another novelty, unprecedented in Sofia's other malls. Some of the lifts are designed so that you can take your trolley (presumably full of Carrefour goods) with you. Indeed, as we walked around the boutiques we could see people pushing trolleys laden with food, undermining some of the appeal of The Mall boutique area. True to its advertising campaign, The Mall is indeed big, as are some of the boutiques. Unfortunately, this also applies to the prices. One would think that the recession, and competition from other malls, would reduce prices to reasonable levels but this is not the case.

The Malls total build-up area may be 65 000 sq m but the only place that gives an impression of spaciousness is the food and drink area where the cinema complex is. This area is so vast that it resembles a large railway station with hundreds of people sitting on plastic chairs eating fast food. All that is missing is a voice on loudspeakers announcing train times.

Restaurants and coffee shops are definitely not among The Malls strong cards. In theory, it has 185 stores, restaurants, recreations centres, bars and cafeterias, but despite this choice the place fails to provide a comfortable dining out experience. This is probably because it has just opened. Still, The Malls purpose is to make people shop, not just dine out, so this is probably justified.

After spending a couple of hours walking around and drinking coffee we decided we had had enough and headed to the exit. This proved a bigger challenge than entering the car park through the tunnel because getting back onto the busy Tsarigradsko Chaussee is not easy when you have dozens of vehicles waiting in line. After about 20 minutes queueing we decided that this would probably be our last visit to The Mall if only because we live on the other side of the city, closer to already existing malls that provide the same expensive shops and services. This is actually The Malls main advantage because it lies in an area hitherto bypassed by large shopping centres. This gap has now been filled.

This is yet more good news I don't understand whats going on? we are told that the world is in the S**t and we see Bulgaria spending millions and opening these big malls :Shocked: