I headed on over to City 7 the other week to do a bit of shopping.   I was also meeting a couple of friends that I hadn’t seen in a while.  We were going to meet up and catch ‘Mad Max: Fury Road’ at the Imax there a little later.

It has been quite some time since I had visited City 7.  I wanted to get some shopping in before meeting my friends and seeing the movie.

When I arrived, I decided to grab a coffee and sit outside before hitting the shops.  I noticed a Star Bucks was there now.  I don’t remember that being there the last time I was here, but, maybe it was and I just didn’t notice it.  I went in to the Java Bean coffee shop as I was familiar with it, got a coffee and headed back outside.

I sat down on one of the benches, and had a look around.  There was also a new waterfall/fountain  near the middle of the center.  Don’t think that was there either, but, again, who knows?

It then dawned on me that it was possible that a lot of things have changed here since last visiting.  All of the stores that I liked to shop at may have changed or are no longer here

It was such a nice day out, I enjoyed my coffee and looked around some more.  The maintenance people were out power hosing the sidewalk areas and were slowly getting closer to where I was sitting.  Just enough time to finish my coffee and head in to shop.

As I walked in, I noticed that a big sporting goods store that was near the main entrance was closed down.  Nothing had replaced it either as the old sign for the place was still there.  Must have happened recently.  Looked around the main center area and also noticed that my ‘Tommy Hilfiger’ store was gone and replaced by a Nike shop.  Oh well, there went my main reason to shop.

I went for a walk through City 7 and it seemed like a few places had changed, which is natural, but also noticed a lot of places had closed and were vacant.  It seemed a little strange to me.  There also didn’t seem to be that many people around.  Normally this would be ideal for me, less crowds, better shopping, in and out.

I began to wonder what was going on here?

My only conclusion was that the rent for shops was probably very high and that the closing of Lotte Mart (or moving locations) also hurt.  Then I remembered that places here seemed to change or close even when City 7 first opened.  There use to be a Quiznos Subs here too that I was so sorry to see leave.

It’s too bad seeing places close or leave City 7 as it is a very nice area and an area that is nice to hangout at.  I enjoy the open concept of the place and the outdoor areas around it.  I hope that people will continue to go there, but can understand why the amount of shoppers seems to be dropping as the number of stores drop too, for whatever the reasons may be.

There were still a lot of store open, some old and some new, as well as coffee shops and restaurants.  It was still an enjoyable shopping day for me and I managed to grab some new things.

It was time to meet up with my friends and get the tickets to Mad Max.  At least City 7 has the Imax now and the theater still seemed pretty busy.

I’m not going to give my review of Mad Max on here, you can ask me the next time you see me.  I did enjoy the movie, and that’s about as much as I’ll say for now.

One thing I can recommend if you are ever going to see a movie in 3D, get the children’s glasses!

it sound funny, I know, but the 3D glass for kids are so much more comfortable than the regular one.  They are still a decent size, look pretty normal, and don’t hurt around the nose or ears as much as the adult glasses!

Trust me, it could make your 3D experience a whole lot better!

As for City 7, I still enjoy the environment and hope others, like yourself, get down there sometime, even if it’s just for a coffee.  I’m feeling bad now that it took me so long to get back over there and plan to visit more often this summer!