Review of The Spring Kuching
Back in March 2007, I posted about Kuching’s new shopping mall named The Spring which is located at Simpang Tiga. At that time, it was about 60% - 70% through completion. During my last trip home a few weeks back, I took the time from my tight schedule to take a peek at this new mall in town.
IMHO, the exterior is ugly. The building structure looks like a factory or warehouse. My first impression of the interior layout resembles Alamanda Putrajaya. The mall is large and spacious where some sections of the building reminds me of Mid Valley Mega Mall and The Curve.
The decorations are rather basic. The ceiling is lighted with modern lanterns and colourful banners. Presence of Feng Shui is represented by the water fountains at the center of the lobby. There are signs on the glass panel at every floors prohibiting patrons from throwing coins into the fountain but it tend to turn to deaf ears.
Most of the merchandising stores are the big boys chains that we can find in KL. There’s not many local stores like what you’d normally find at Wisma Hopoh, Wisma Satok or Wisma Saberkas, which is good as it adds more varieties of shopping experience to Kuching folks.
The Spring would cut further shopping trips by Kuchingites make in a year to KL as they could basically find what they want locally. The airline companies would see drops in the number of Kuching <> KL flyers in the long run.
The main anchor of the mall is Parkson which this is their second outlet, the first being at Riverside. Some of the major chains that made their debut at Kuching are F.O.S, Guess, Esprit, Padini Concept Store, The FaceShop, MPH and many more.
Famous food chains such as Big Apple Donut’s & Coffee, The Manhattan Fish Market, Kenny Roger’s, Sushi King, The Chicken Rice Shop (TCRS) and GNC are making attempts to break the local taste dominant. Kenny Roger’s opened once at Sarawak Plaza but closed down a few months later. Most Kuching people that I’ve asked who had been there complained that having meals there are quite expensive for them. It’s cheaper and satisfying to dine at local coffesshop like Siang Siang or Jolibee. I’m interested to see how would TCRS ensure its survival and compete with long-existent Singapore Chicken Rice or our local Ah Suan chicken rice which IMHO are far superior than TCRS.
Would Kuching people still queue at Big Apple three months down the road is another theory I’m interested to prove wrong. To the more conservative in experimenting their culinary experience The Spring offers local food bazaar as well.
To be fair to our local boy’s stores, there are also big names like Lea Center competing proudly and standing as tall against the KL based competitors.
The Spring management should have built more covered/basement parking. Entering the basement is causing unnecessary traffic because there are only two entrance and the ticketing machine is too slow when printing the parking ticket.
There should also be more auto payment machine installed to cut the long queue at the ticketing counter.
The verdict; The Spring is great as it offers new shopping experience with more brand names for Kuching people to choose from. The downside, getting here is a pain as there are long queues at every entrances and exits.
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June 16th, 2008 at 1:41 pm
i believe Big Apple will last as long as no other close competitor (e.g. Dunkin Donut) also opens in Kuching. existing bakeries in Kuching can’t make the same quality donut
we (kuching) have a population of more than half a million so the market is there - however small, even if ppl go there once a month, there will still be customers lining up
i was hoping that Tesco opens up there too
did u went to see Boulevard? i prefer my shopping there but lepak at Spring
June 16th, 2008 at 2:01 pm
well siverstar, i don’t quite agree with you. while kuching population might be half a million but how many percent has the buying power and the power to spend their $?
didn’t get the chance to see Boulevard. hope to do that when i’m back in kuching again.
June 16th, 2008 at 5:03 pm
haha but you would be surprise to know that most ppl here are actually well off. anyway, like you said there will be less trips to kl so perhaps the extra $$$ will go to outlets like Big Apple
on the other hand, i believe that one of kenny rogers outlet either at spring or boulevard will close, business awal 2 dah kureng
June 19th, 2008 at 10:38 pm
hmm… The manhattan Fish Market might suffer. I tried them a few weeks ago.. and they are expensive, but the experince was really good. KR was ordinary.. TCRS was actually a good value for money. You get so much for RM13!! but i guess for those whom arent into this type of food will look at me in disgust… and I think Sushi King is doing quite well.. but I never tried them out coz Im not a sushi fan.
My verdict.. Springs is just to relax and hang out.. but shopping would prove too expensive…
June 20th, 2008 at 5:02 pm
Hi cdason. Yeah, I agree with you that MFM would be closed down soon. Sushi King is affordable still ..
August 26th, 2008 at 6:31 pm
Things are not as simple as you guys said.
October 1st, 2008 at 8:43 pm
erm… i think MFM will last longer at both spring n boulevard as long as it’s open… hmm, coz not every ppl in kuching is so “loket” as well as it is worth 2 spend more money there… coz we cant die by taking all our property n money with us… so sometimes ppl nid relax n enjoy life 2! furthermore, shopping at spring is much more better due 2 its high quality, branded, wonderful, last longer and worth~evrything is worth, no matter what~try is beter thn didnt try~fOR BOULEVARD, well…say de truth…i dun understand why gt ppl say they prefer shopping in boulevard…cz majority of de boulevard stuff is not attractive and lauzy~~ hmm 4 me i think i will prefer buying high quality but expensive stuff more than wasting my money on low quality stuff with cheaper price but nid 2 purchase again when the old stuff is spoil…Conclusion, we are MONEY’s owner, but nt MONEY’S worker…human should know how to enjoy and try many good things~it’s stupid to keep all those money and waste it in stupid way~
October 13th, 2008 at 11:19 am
well i prefer shopping at the Spring because it is easy for me as a Muslim to pray because a mosque is nearby and there is a surau inside. good place to lepak and buy books. never try TCRS but did try sushi king. i’m looking forward to the day when the cineplexes are open. by the way, i felt like tipah tertipu with boulevard. i have shopped there few times and you know what, my boulevard family card point is only 0.52 they have strange rule giving you points. so if want to buy imported things, i prefer cold storage…no more boulevard….
November 1st, 2008 at 4:39 pm
Hhmmmm….what i can describe about the spring?.. first of all it’s a new shopping complex with a big space of car parking.. second is,..hmm.. it has good presentation when we use flat escalator going 1st floor.. new design interior, big shop lots but tooo expensive to spend on.. suppose to.. kuang3.. the spring is very good place, almost everything u can find there.. maybe..
but if i rate the spring i give it 4 stars, know why? because i already give 5 stars to wisma saberkas..hahah.. i more prefer go w.saberkas.. it is free car parking… what is better than free parking??? the other not.. what else? goodies, gadgets, stuffs, everything electronics joyable are there.. OMG.. hehe.. please comment bout wisma saberkas..
wa chaaaa.. cau cin cau..