There are quite a few shopping centres, particularly in the Fourways area, that have really been designed without too much thought for the consumer with the result that the tenants in particular look like they are struggling terribly.

Design Quarter, for example, does not have lifts to the upper floors, requiring people to walk up huge numbers of stairs – something most lazy people are not going to do. The front of the centre always seems to be doing well, where the restaurants are, but the rest is pretty much deserted and perhaps they should have put the restaurants more to the middle of the centre to spread the traffic widely. A visit to Cedar Square, another shopping centre in Fourways, reveals more shops with very little foot traffic, although the centre comes alive at night on weekends with a busy night life. That does not seem to help the boutique-style stores that are not doing much business during the week, and the fact that it has no roof means there is water everywhere and you get soaked if you happen to be there any time during the rainy season! Another centre in the area that is not doing well is the Lonehill shopping centre and one wonders why there are so many poorly designed/located shopping centres all in the same area. Trading conditions must really be tough for a lot of the tenants.