The First Mall in Bulgaria

Last weekend the first mall in Bulgaria opened. Prior to it’s opening, Bulgaria was the only country in Europe to have 0 square meters of mall space per 1000 inhabitants. Now it has 0.0025 square meters per 1000 inhabitants. The new mall is called City Center Sofia (or CCS, for short) and is majority owned by GE Capital (although it went through several owners during the construction phase). One of the benefits of CCS is that it’s a 5 minute walk from my house.

I went into the mall for the first time this past week to check it out. Despite being touted as a “western style mall”, it looks pretty small from the outside. During construction I member thinking, “I’ve seen Macy’s stores bigger than this whole mall.” Well, the mall is actually bigger than it looks (although, not much). Inside there are 6 floors, including two that are below ground level. The mall has a movie theater in it (which is nice because the other close movie theater, at NDK, is kind of dumpy). There is a small food court and no shortage of women’s lingerie stores (a trend prevalent throughout Sofia – women here must buy a lot of lingerie, or maybe it just gets worn out very quickly).

Very few structures in Bulgaria escape my “what is wrong with this” critique – the City Center Sofia mall is no exception. Right off the bat, if you notice on the picture above, the “Sofia” lights in “City Center Sofia” are already broken – after only 1 week. Quality workmanship. Once inside, the middle of the mall has a circular opening that extends through all 6 floors. This opening accommodates the escalators. The escalators are set up such that, when moving between floors, you must walk around the circular opening to the opposite side to continue your journey up or down. From a customer standpoint I find this annoying, but from a business perspective it makes perfect sense. Since the mall’s customers are forced to walk around the opening, the retail space on either side of the escalators becomes a prime location. Every customer moving between floors walks by one or the other of two grade-A prime retail spaces. So, what does the mall do with one side of this prime revenue generating space? They put an elevator bank there. And not just one elevator – three! So, in addition to an extensive escalator system, they also have 3 elevators in a mall only slightly bigger than Macys. Super. I’m sure those elevator banks are adding significantly to your bottom line.

You could argue that the building designers had Sofia’s handicapped population in mind when they installed the elevators. This is a noble argument, but unrealistic. If they had the handicapped population in mind they wouldn’t have built stairs to the entrance of the mall and put several large potted plants blocking the handicapped ramp. Like every other building in Sofia, the City Center Sofia mall is designed to be “handicap-free.” There is no “Bulgarians with Disabilities Act.” If your disabled and you want to get to the 3rd floor, you better have some strong arms because you’ll be pulling both your handicapped ass and your wheelchair up those stairs. Even if there is an elevator in the building, you have to go up a half flight of stairs to get to it and it’s too small for your wheelchair. Plus, it’s broken.

Regardless, Bulgaria has made a big leap forward (at least in their eyes) with the new mall. I’m sure I’ll be visiting it again, unless of course I break a leg.

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