Hong Kong’s malls should be more than a shopping paradise for the rich

I recently left my corporate job to pursue my personal goals. Once you leave a desk job, you tend to spend a lot more time on your feet. If your diary entries say 11am for coffee chat in Sheung Wan, a 3pm interview in Tai Po and a 7pm Cantonese class in Sha Tin, you’re inevitably caught in the liminal spaces of shopping centres and cafes.

If you count where I’m writing this, that includes a Starbucks where I was finally able to find a seat after an hour of roaming around Central.

Many will relate to this experience. You stumble off public transport, all too aware of the sweat from a passenger that has somehow transferred onto your shirt. You impatiently wait for the lights to change, squinting up at the unrelenting sun. Your legs are tired from a day on your feet, but you dash across the road into a mall where a gust of air conditioning hits your face. Oasis.

But then you spend 5 minutes walking around looking for a place to sit. That turns into 15 minutes. You do the rounds inside every Starbucks, Pret a Manger and McDonald’s. Maybe you even consider shelling out for a seat and a coffee at Fuel Espresso.

But even that’s not an option as every seat is taken by insurance agents, bankers and tai tais on their post-lunch lingers. So you stand, legs tired from the fruitless wandering and shoulders heavy from carrying your desk around in a bag. The thought of sitting cross-legged outside a Louis Vuitton store and opening your laptop to answer a few emails doesn’t seem all that crazy.

  

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