Park Royal Mall Kicks Out Long Time (50 years?) Chess Group
 

Coles version:

- informal group has been playing chess at Park Royal for 25+ (possibly as much as 50?) years
- group has been playing at the food court
- group claims many of their players regularly buy food / drinks from the food court
- mall management did a "cost-benefits" analysis, and decided to kick this group out

West Vancouver's Park Royal drops curtain on 50 years of chess games

:facepalm:

It really makes me wonder -- do these mall management staff even have a basic marketing / PR course under their belts? I understand that these chess players may not be the high profit customers that the mall is seeking, but there has to be some much smarter (but still effective) ways to dissuade them from staying.

And now it looks like they'll be in PR damage control mode.

As usual. Mall staff don't think of the repercussions this will have. Media and public will have an uproar over the next few days and the mall will welcome back the chess players begrudgingly.

West Van police lol.

I'd stop going to that mall on principle. Every mall has old people playing chess. It definitely adds to the atmosphere.

It irks me to no end how short sighted these mall people are. I hope people boycott the place. Fuck 'em.

I'm torn because part of me thinks this is dumb on levels by the mall however the other part of me believes that the mall is privately owned and if they don't want people in there playing chess they shouldn't be there. You can disagree with there reasoning for not having them there but at the end of the day they own the mall.

There are some public places they could go, I'm sure one of the Public Libraries or community centers owned by the City would have some space for them to play?

Dumb PR move though, not really I fully understand why they aren't wanted in the mall.

It's private property. Doesn't really matter how long they've been going there.

Not a good PR move but it's their right. It's so gross how people just run to the media over shit like this.

Very srs, much importance in dis world.

If the mall wants to stick by their stance wait a week when no one cares anymore.

Serious question - in principle, how is this different than the community gardens on the Arbutus corridor?

If the group was occupying seats during busy times then I could see the reason; terrible PR move aside.

I sorta understand where they are coming from. Time to Time I see some type of people playing Chess/chess/cards etc etc...... most of the time it doesn't bother me but if the food court is a bit busy and people are looking for seats then it might cause potential customers to just go away.

At busy times, they need to put a stop watch on those high school kids who just hang out at the mall food court.

Kind of related..........Starbucks, lol. Students using space to study and surf. Some don't even have a drink. At least put a five hour limit........... some are there like all fricken day.

^^^

Damn right I'll be at Starbucks all day. Moving all that equipment is a bitch for only a few hours of use!
https://cdn3.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/jUS...er-guy.0.0.jpg

kingsgate twitter account should take the opportunity to invite the chess players to their mall and troll park royal

Totally understand that, but these people are there when nobody else is around. These old people should just stay in their seniors homes and not mingle with anyone younger than them.

Problem is, these chess people are semi organized. Easy to deal with. Young pimple-faced kids playing their video games with their buddies after school are much harder to pick on. Oh look, the mall is bustling with so many youngsters........... so hip. Those fucking seniors sitting there in the corner playing chess, wtf? I thought we kicked them out yesterday..........


Anyway, I don't hang out a malls, so no biggie for me. Yes, it's privately owned, but supported by the public. There's probably more to the story anyway. There always is.

inb4 park royal says it was a misunderstanding as below

Ah, Kingsgate Mall. If I were to hang out at any mall, that'd be my number one choice. Only problem is, no EV charge stations there, :lawl:

i think mount pleasant community centre has one but i think it's $1.50/30min paid parking

My range anxiety stopped as soon as I got my garage wired for 240 volt. Charging takes less than half the time. I don't worry about it as much........ go home, take shit, shave, shower, and I'm good to go again, lol. There's a shit load of charging stations popping up. Still two to five years before the Tesla 3 mania takes over, if it really does at all.

The article doesn't say but are they just taking a hard stance on their policy of 1 hr seating etc etc or did something else prompted them to make this decision i.e. they were there during prime time for long periods and people complained about not being able to find a table to eat?

I mean most malls i.e. Oakridge have shit loads of groups of old people going in the early AM, buying a coffee and they hang for hours. Tim of day doesn't affect anyone they are long gone by the time any lunch rush happens but they sure as hell are there for a while none the less.

Wait MG1, what car do you have now? I thought you had a Honda of some sort...

I think it's ILX + Leaf now.

Do I qualify for RS stalker status yet? :badpokerface:

I'd rather watch people play chess than just old people sitting around wasting space.
Metrotown's food court and seating area's are full of asian and east indian seniors who just sit around and talk or sleep. They don't spend a DIME while there, atleast the chess players buy food/drinks.

i thought it was an electric smartcar

One of the local Victoria Strip malls tried to kick out a group of Hot Rodders/Classic Car Owners that would meet up at the coffee place every Friday for 10+ years.
One day the Property Manager just showed up and started handing out parking tickets.

That of course didn't go over very well, the bad media hit to the Property Manager, threats of boycots etc... eventually had them backpedalling, but the damage had already been done and I don't think it's been the same since.

Edit: All the bad press for Hansbraun could have been avoided if they tried talking to the hotrodders first, explaining their concerns and giving them some warning that they were taking issue with the rodders' meetups rather than just showing up one day and giving out tickets.

Sounds like same thing for Park Royal in this case, if they just said:
"Hey chess playing guys, you're taking up a lot of tables for a long time that other paying customers can't find seats, let's find a solution"

rather than just saying:
"You guys gotta stop freeloading off our tables and chairs and get the fuck out"

I think it might have gone down quite differently in the media.

Malls are very empty these days as it is, is kicking out established, dedicated, vociferous customers ever a good idea? No, they're idiots, did the management's homeschooled accountants do this analysis?

The article does not in any way sheds light on if the Mall management ever had any discussion with these chess players. I prefer to give them the benefit of the doubt that at least they tried to find some solutions before going all out and sticking it to these chess players.

Either I don't think the damage is gonna be as great as people exaggerate it to be. People who need to shop there will continue to shop and things like this will be forgotten rather quickly.

In the article is a copy of the letter the mall sent to the players, confirming they had discussions and the mall tried to help them find solutions at another venue: https://www.scribd.com/doc/306874025...s-Group-032016

I remember when I was a kid, we'd go to Park Royal and I'd always notice the old people playing chess in the mall. But the difference back then was the chess playing happened in the atrium, not in the food court. The mall had even purpose built a giant chess board with 3 feet tall pieces.

Here's a photo of it: http://www.leespage.ca/h/articles0/c...royal_mall.jpg

The difference is now the mall has been renovated completely and is trying to create a higher-end image. The only place left for the chess players is the brand new food court and the mall doesn't see chess players as being part of it. I can kind of understand the mall's position. It's a new era. But that's kind of harsh for the mall to threaten to call the police. I'm sure the police don't want to waste time dealing with a bunch of chess-playing senior citizen hooligans.

I think ultimately the chess players will lose out, public will be angry for a few days, the mall gets some bad PR, but then everyone moves on with their lives. A sign of the times I guess.

This thread is now about old people since the resident RS "old guy" just popped in and made an unrelated post.

Which one of those old guys playing chess has an onion on his belt?

:fullofwin: