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| - If you asked me what a good shopping mall should have I'd say: convenient location, ample parking, a wide variety of stores, good hours, walkability, entertainment venues, a solid food court, restaurants and of course washrooms in the right places. Does Chinook Centre have all this? Short answer: yes and then some! Full breakdown below:
1) Convenient location? Yup! Right on Macleod and Glenmore with the Chinook LRT located just a short walk away. Small secret, Route 506 is a free shuttle bus service to/from Chinook LRT/Chinook Centre for those who have trouble walking or just need a break. There are also dedicated Mayfair Taxi spots and Car2Go spots, so there are no shortage of options to get to/from Chinook Centre. Score: 5/5
2) Ample Parking? Yes and No, there are over 5,500 spots (most underground) making it Calgary's largest heated parkade. So yes there is ample parking, but the "no" for parking is because you have to know where to look. The front surface lot (East) and most immediate underground areas are typically poor choices. I recommend checking the rear (West) surface lots and underground, but avoid the Nordstrom area (used to be the spot when it was Sears, but busy since Nordstrom came in). Surface covered parkade can be hit and miss out back. Also the area by Shell and Nordstrom out front is usually a safe bet due to its awkward placement lol ;). They even do valet parking at this mall on weekends... lol. Not free like The Core though! You will have to pay. Score: 4/5
3) Store Variety? ABSOLUTELY! A little bit of everything, something for everyone and a range of price ranges from affordable to very high end. With over 250 stores there's really too many to list, check out the list online! Score: 5/5
4) Hours? 9:30am-9:00pm Mon-Sat, Sun/Holidays 11:00am-7:00pm, more than adequate! There are some exceptions on some anchors like Chapters, Shoppers and the Movie Theatre of course (check online). Score: 5/5
5) Walkability? Yup! The layout of this mall is pretty simple to navigate once you're familiar with it. You can even do it pretty strategically to cover both levels with minimal/no overlap if you know what path to take. Escalators and elevators are in the right places. It does get fairly crowded, but the walk ways are wide enough so you can get past the slow pokes. They even categorize the floor plan a bit, for example most cell phone stores are in the same area and most high end stores are in the same area. Score: 4.5/5
6) Entertainment? The best theatre in Calgary (see my separate review for why I think it's the best). There's a bowling alley as well at this mall! No other major activities though. Score 4/5
7) Food Court? Great balance, a little bit of everything from greasy to healthy, from super cheap to a bit more expensive. Sweet to Savoury... you get the point. Score 5/5
8) Restaurants? MMhmmm: JOEY Chinook, State & Main, Bazille, Double Zero Pizza, Boston Pizza, Globefish Japanese Bistro and Chop. Great options, just docking a point for variety, Score 4/5
9) Washrooms? These are so-so, they have them located throughout the mall but they're kind of in these odd spots away from everything and you find yourself rushing to them rather than conveniently using them. Score 3/5
Simply put: Chinook has something for everyone! Given my breakdown above you may be wondering why I gave it a 5/5 overall instead of a 3 or 4. This mall is a 5/5 because it's the best Calgary has to offer despite a couple short comings, if all the malls in Calgary were the exact same distance apart I would always choose Chinook Centre because it offers more overall. Market Mall, South Centre, The Core? No contest... Some might argue CrossIron Mills and it would be close because they have some strong anchors. But Chinook would still edge it out because CrossIron doesn't have the quality of theatre Chinook does nor does it have the restaurant options. So if you only get to visit 1 mall on your next major shopping day, choose Chinook Centre :).
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