South City Shopping Centre — Attraction in Christchurch

I've been going to South City since I was 15! That's over 30yrs ago, when they had an elevated part in the food court for the smokers! I also modeled there for the D.A.R.E, Hugs, not Drugs promotion. I even still have the outfit! Since moving back to the inner city, it has become my local mall and although it's one of the smaller malls around Christchurch, It has a fabulous $2 shop, a reduced price supermarket, multiple well known shoe stores, Pagani, Cotton On which ALWAYS has very low price sale items, 2 book stores, Ihb, a great food court with 2 sushi bars, Tank, Hungry Wok, Subway, Teaseme, an ice cream bar, a Japanese Bakery, a barber/hairdresser, 2 kids 'nooks' AND a playground which brings welcomed relief to frazzled parents, especially during the holidays when they also always have at least one kids FREE holiday activity. This Easter It's 'Build a bear' and the pure delight on the kids' faces as I walk past reminds me of similar times with all my grown children. In fact, I took my first born there for lunch every weekend for years. Such great memories. And now it's been my local again for nearly 8 years. I've watched shops come and go aswell as staff from not only those shops that closed but also from the shops that have literally been their forever along with a handful of staff that have also literally been there forever! They also have THE cleanest, most hygienic, 'mall public toilets' I have ever been in! Which does say a lot because I have the OCD that comes with a fear of germs... JS 😉 Lol Anywho, there's my novel review...

It has everything you need... until they remove the Warehouse in September.

Update: No longer has everything you need, sorry. Will still have some of what you need though!

Update 2.0: Now has a Chemist Warehouse and Cotton On Mega, so the things you need are returning! But McDonald's left the building.

Update 3.0: Also has a JB-HiFi now, its huge! Southcity is surging with life again. Someone needs to fill the void that McDonald's left but the soldiers in the foodcourt will never let a hungry belly walk by.

Update 4.0: WOW! What a comeback. South City is buzzing with it's latest additions, now including a Reduced to Clear market. I bet McDonald's is kicking itself, I often think about how quickly one of the biggest companies in the world (that was arguably the busiest option in the foodcourt) jumped...

Ahh South city... Use to be a go to place in my childhood when I was little. I remember the mall being more packed with children on the playground with their parents supervising them as they are sitting at the food court. I remember this place having packed of people walking in and about to the variety of stores the mall had a while back (including the good ol New World). Seems like the mall really lost its charm as New world and the other stores begin to shut down. Now it's just a couple of stores, with the rest either closed down or are used for pop up stands. Sad to see that this mall is dying, tho still not a bad mall at all as one of its pros is that there's lesser people (less crowd). However it's just very, and I mean VERY empty in comparison to...