Isn't an outlet mall suppose to be built OUT OF THE WAY?

All the outlet malls in the Washington, Oregon, and California (well, maybe not Citadel in LA) are all located in low traffic locations.

#BcosRichmondDrivers ?

The architect for this outlet wants those fashion designers to make a quick buck off the ballers who go the airport.

Convenience trumps transport infrastructure/traffic management in this case.

Talk about how not to build a smarter planet. :lawl:

You forgot another important factor: Richmond drivers. :troll:

The owners of this designer outlet really know their buyers demographics well. The Chinese housewives, the C-Lai, driving their Benz, their CLA to the outlet.

-lousy drivers who wear their "fashionable" UV protection visors while trying to get to the outlets safely. :lawl:

They have the money to buy this stuff but not the driving skill to get to this outlet safely. FailFish

The designer outlet's buyer demographic: :troll:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...bass/c-lai.jpg

I'd go!

If they built an observation platform to watch planes.

You're right on the dates looking back it was tendered August of 2013 and started sometime after that for some reason it seemed longer then that. It was an expensive design, none of the buildings were typical, it was a difficult take-off as well. We didn't end up with the project at the end of the day, the GC was actually from Europe which is just weird I don't know how they can compete with the local guys we didn't even bid them.

Shit money in town is relative, I'm guessing your buddies weren't doing construction for minimum wage in town.

Will just end up being a c-lai in Lexus/BMW/Mercedes/Audi wearing welding mask spotting platform. Might as well stick a camera on there to count how many fender benders or instances of "unintended acceleration" occur :lawl:

I don't see the point of outlet in YVR unless they are somehow able to compete with Seattle Outlet price-wise and also the variety of brands.

But again, I don't shop at outlet anymore. It used to be that you could get premium brand's quality/design for cheap. Now they just make crappy design and shitty materials with the brand tag throw on top.

I just wait for major retailers to go on sale. They are usually cheaper than outlet and I get the real deal.

I remember people talking about efficient Crown corporations and citing YVR as an example. Well, here's a perfect example of a Crown Corp with sufficient assets (e.g. land) and making the most of those assets to generate revenue. The media is reporting that YVR is getting half of the revenue from Macarthur Glen as part of the lease which is pretty good if you ask me. It's probably why other municipalities, such as Richmond, complained about the project (though Malcolm Brodie was there for the opening ceremony). The mall may not be everyone's cup of tea, but it makes sense on many levels.

TL;DR - people will always find a reason to be negative, even in the face of sound business decisions.

Good points all around, but I'd add that you have neglected to take the intangible costs into the equation.

The traffic jams impose a cost on everyone involved. The shoppers themselves, the police, travelers trying to get to YVR on time, the workers and courier companies nearby, the air quality from all that extra idling, etc. In this case, YVR is a prime beneficiary of the outlet mall, as is the mall owners. However, a lot of other people are paying for those intangible costs.

I wonder how many people missed their flights yesterday and have to spend extra money on hotels, plane tix, fees, and such...

That's just a dumb excuse.

Learn to leave earlier than you're suppose to when travelling to the airport during their store hours. Or god forbid, learn to take the skytrain which is not affected by traffic.

^ Well, when you have a monopoly such as YVR on international travel in Metro Vancouver, those intangible costs are hard to quantify in terms of lost business, public reputation, etc.

Like I said, people whine and complain when an organization makes sound business decisions so it can retain and attract airline carriers. Can you imagine if Translink attempted a similar venture? The venting would never end!

YVR is pretty nimble, so I'm sure they'll work out the logistics quickly, or just wait until the crowds come to a simmer.

You can't realistically expect everyone to be equipped with all the information they need. For example, how is a foreign traveller supposed to know that it was Grand Opening day yesterday at this outlet mall? Say he is a US traveler, and has budgeted the standard 2 hrs prior for his flight. The traffic jam held him back for a solid 30 min. Then he runs into a little delay / longer line up at border security, and boom, he missed his flight.

Over time, I'm sure things will work out a lot better. And as the glamour of the brand spanking new outlet mall fades, I doubt we'll be seeing the same traffic volume trying to squeeze into that same plot of land at the same time (edit: Oh wait... it'll be traffic chaos all over again during Black Friday and Boxing Day sale...). Still, it remains to be seen what the on-going traffic and customer volume would be like. With its proximity to the airport, I seriously hope it wouldn't result in any traveler delays.

As part of the YVR's contract with Premium Outlets, the prices were agreed to match the prices at the Seattle Premium Outlets. I'm not sure if that will happen. The YVR Outlet is also supposed to look nicer as well as they are using an European developer.

I thought the big draw of this new outlet is accessibility; it's only 2 stations away so travelers can visit this during a layover.

Also, are foreigners (Chinese passport for ex.) able to cross US border easily? Saves on visa costs/paper work/travel time/lack of fluency in English so even if the merchandise here is priced a bit more than Seattle/Tulalip, you bet they'd rather go here than get hassled by the CBSA for not declaring a high-end handbag

The mall was strategically built where it stands.

It has Canada Line access, YVR makes money off unused land, and there really wasn't any other purpose for the land. You can only build so tall with the airplanes landing, and housing is out of the question because of airplane noise.

Do they need to up the road infrastructure? Ofcourse, but YVR probably figures after afew weeks (or summer) traffic will eventually balance out and they can live with what is there.

I can imagine though that UPS will complain as time passes by, as their HQ is near Iona past the outlet mall.

As a side note, a distant cousin of mine asked me if I know any fluent Mandarin speaking people with customer service skills who could work during the grand opening of this outlet.

I told him that I would ask around. Then I realized "Shit, I forgot to post this on RS". :lawl:

Here is his company: KaiZenCreativeGroup Inc.

-hoping that the people that he hired to work for him took the Canada Line to get there.

Skytrain there is absolute flawless. I agree on that.

Traffic is actually not that bad on the Arthur Liang bridge. Just stay on the left lane. Richmond to YVR though... that was insane.

Also there is a back road that goes to the outlet. But most are not familiar with the roads.

Hope traffic won't be this bad at end of Oct. Suppose to go on a flight end of Oct and I usually arrive 2 hours beforehand anyways.

Gf is there right now, says there are not many Chinese folks anymore, mostly brown and flip peeps, guess they weren't too impressed by the selection after going there on opening day?

Cambodians are sometimes been mistaken as flips.... Just sayin

They already feasted in the first 30 mins.

The important question we all have to ask: like any real mall, does it have a portrait studio?

If the platform is wide enough someone will try to park their cars on it or get stuck on the staircase.