Central Square How green was my trolley
Gone are the days, it seems, and not too soon, when a single retailer, with a suitcase full of cash, would sidle up to a mall owner and next thing you know the anchor deal was mouldering safely in the chairman’s Chubb wall safe. Nowadays, with retail property at such a premium, malls will happily let three or four out of the big six duke it out in the marbled halls, scrapping over punters like a bunch of hyena pups over a wildebeest skull. So it is in the new Central Square Mall at Menlyn Maine, where are to be found a next-generation Pick n Pay complete with biltong bar and sushi stand, a spanking new SPAR with green tech that cuts consumption by 67%, and a Woolies Food with a full-service café. The mall itself is as green as all get-out, with the only 4 Green Star (or higher) rating in the industry from the Green Building Council of South Africa, who don’t dish these things out lightly.
Comment: This is fantastic. Here we are, in a developing country, in the midst of an economic malaise for which there doesn’t seem to be any name yet, and our visionary businesses are investing in projects which do right by the planet and benefit the old bottom line at the same time.