Can you remember when Pierre Trudeau was beginning his second stint as Canada's prime minister?
Or when Queen’s Another One Bites The Dust was on the radio? If you can, you’re remembering 1980, the year St. Albert Centre opened.
The mall celebrated its 30th birthday on Friday, 30 years to the day of its grand opening.
“Congratulations and thank-yous are in order to St. Albert for making us a part of your community for the past 30 years,” said Olympia Trencevski, the mall's general manager.
Faced with a constant struggle to prevent St. Albert shoppers from heading down St. Albert Trail to Edmonton, the mall is in the midst of a rebranding campaign that began last fall. With the slogan “the heart of our community,” the aim is to have residents recognize the mall as an integral community member and do more of their shopping at home.
“We're never going to be West Edmonton Mall but we will continue to be the best community centre that St. Albert Centre has ever been,” Trencevski said.
Last year Trencevski said her foot traffic had plateaued at three million people a year and she was looking for a 20 per cent boost. Positive signs are starting to appear, with gift card purchases up 10 per cent and foot traffic up 4.5 per cent in March, she said.
She likes the mall's current mix but wants to “kick it up a notch” by improving the food court and attracting some premium brand fashion outlets.
“It's been challenging. It's not an easy task,” she said, as a year of recession put a noticeable damper on most retailers' expansion plans.
“Retailers now are becoming cautiously optimistic and they look forward to growing and expanding their businesses,” she said.
Tip Top Tailors has been a mall tenant since opening day. The men's wear retailer has no intentions of following other businesses to the power centre at the north end of St. Albert.
“A lot of businesses have moved up the hill there. Talking to a few of them … I think we're still better off in the mall as opposed to being in a power centre,” said manager Ali Pradhan.
The Bay store director Deanna MacDonald thinks the mall has a bright future because people will realize the benefit of having everything under one roof, where the box store experience features a lot of driving around and getting in and out of vehicles.
“I think that as time goes, people will realize that and they will go back to the mall more than the box stores,” she said.
When it opened, the mall was at the edge of town. The opening came after years of debate about whether or not the citizens of the town of St. Albert wanted a regional shopping centre.
“The shopping centre was a key thing in saying … St. Albert's coming of age,” said former mayor Richard Plain.
Bay employee Irene Mazur, 64, is the only original employee left in the mall. The 64-year-old remembers the mall opening amid a carnival atmosphere. The site is less of a novelty now but has settled into its role, she said.
“Now we're getting those customers that used to go to Edmonton,” she said. “We're keeping our local people at home.”
