Alan Moule, Bothasig
I visited the new mall on Sunday – mainly out of curiosity – and must say I was not that impressed.
Positives: Although the outside appearance is not jaw-dropping, the interiors have been beautifully conceived and executed. Access is easy, and parking is plentiful – although I’m not convinced that I should be paying for parking at a shopping mall — certainly not open air.
The digital directory display inside the main entrance was wonderful.
There was a very polite and helpful mall employee there to offer assistance with its functioning, but this really wasn’t necessary.
All was clear and intuitive. The best and most comprehensive system I’ve seen anywhere. And the printed hard-copy store directory is equally impressive.
Disappointments: There are no easy-to-access ATMs anywhere inside the mall. I had to go outside to find one.
There is only one set of washrooms/toilets in the whole mall.
Neither feature is acceptable.
I have never visited a mall of this size anywhere in the world – and I’ve travelled extensively – with no ATMs and so few toilet facilities. I’m not sure how they could resolve these issues?
Despite the centre being officially launched, many of the stores (eg Exclusive Books) and restaurants (Melissa’s, and the one opposite), all of which I specifically wanted to visit, were not yet open.
I won’t mention my negative experience with the other restaurants, since those complaints are outside the control of the mall.
Table Bay Mall’s marketing team responds:
We at Table Bay Mall appreciate your feedback and the compliments, as well as any constructive feedback to make your shopping experience as convenient at possible.
We would like to confirm, however, we have ATMs and several more toilet facilities inside the mall.
Our outside parking is 90 minutes free for our shoppers, however, on a bad weather day our basement parking is equally convenient.
To make paying parking easier you can pay by card and our brand ambassadors and parking management company will show you how the tap-and-go payment system works for an even easier option.
The bank’s ATMs are located in the basement lobbies next to the lifts, there are three blocks all with ATMs, but not all are working yet. The banks are resolving this to get their ATMs working.
We also have four bathroom blocks in the mall — one in each basement lobby and we have made provision for female, male, disabled facilities, baby change rooms as well as feeding rooms in these blocks.
There is also a toilet block next to the restaurants to service evening shoppers. You can use our digital directional signage system to navigate you to the closest facility as well as the ATMs.
We are also pushing our tenants hard to complete their installations and in the next few months more and more will open.
This is unfortunately also out of the mall owner’s control. We will let our shoppers know as they open or you can contact the centre management offices for opening dates.
We hope and believe you will visit us again especially once your favourite stores are open.
