Tops readers' poll as favourite mall

Votes at ST Interactive come with strong views disputing this paper's ranking of Causeway Point as No 1 by Serene Goh

JURONG Point earned top spot in a readers' poll that showed Singaporeans are as impassioned about their favourite malls as they are about shopping.

They disagreed with last Saturday's ranking by The Straits Times of Causeway Point as top of the heap among 19 malls, placing the shopping centre in Woodlands fourth, going by the results of an online survey over five days on the Straits Times Interactive website.

These votes came with strong views, arguments and grouses from readers, some mall operators and even architects involved in mall upgrading works.

Responding to the question to name their favourite mall, Jurong Point, which is next to Boon Lay MRT station and which we ranked sixth last week, won first place with 79 reader votes.

Parkway Parade came a close second with 72 votes, Junction 8 third with 55, Causeway Point fourth with 54 and Tampines Mall fifth with 45.

Miss Joan Ang, an East Coast Road resident, wrote a 1,243-word e-mail message to say Parkway Parade deserved better than the fourth position we gave it. She particularly resented the four out of five score the complex in Marine Parade received for food options.
 
'We all know that the judges were blind when they went into Parkway,' she said. 'Hence (they) did not see Crystal Jade, that Thai restaurant I never knew the name of but has been there for ages, that Indonesian restaurant Kartini, Jack's Place and Sakae Sushi.'

Mr Wu Chee Yiun of C.Y. Wu Architects, the principal architects that managed Katong Shopping Centre's recent upgrading works, took issue with its last-place position in this newspaper's table.

'It has come a long way...and new upgrading works are to restore its famous past and nostalgic feel,' wrote Mr Wu, defending its improved lift lobbies, sheltered taxi stand and carparks.

Readers also wanted more details about how the ranking was conducted, our sample size and even the qualifications of our reporters. In one case, they wanted to know whether they could adapt our system for a school project.

As we explained last week, the malls were short-listed for their size and significance to a residential neighbourhood. They were then judged on the quality of their services, retail outlets, layout and facilities.

Five journalists visited the malls over a period of several months. They each spent two to three hours in each one during peak hours in the evenings and at weekends.

They were graded on a scale of zero to five in each of our 17 categories: zero being bad and five being excellent. These scores were then compared, debated, adjusted and then totalled for the final result. The process was designed to be as objective as possible.

Readers' reactions, however, proved that retail therapy isn't just a national pastime here. It's a national obsession.