Letter to the Editor from a Samui Times reader who is less than impressed with the new Central

Dear Editor

I was wondering what the Samui Times readers and island residents think of the new Central Festival shopping centre in Chaweng.

I personally could not wait for it to open. I love shopping and having spent more than six months a year in Koh Samui for the last nine years I was very interested to see a new and exciting shopping experience to enjoy.

But when it opened I could not have been more disappointed. I don’t think that the range of shops is that great, most of the stuff there we could already get on the island, and it is so expensive. I am not sure why you would go there to buy the original of something that you can get a copy of at a fraction of the price just down the road. I don’t like the way there are staff outside the restaurants harassing you to go in and eat, I think the concrete floor is awful, the parking is chaos, being open air is a bit rubbish because if it rains you can’t go shopping there and if it does not you are in and out of air con shops, my personal temperature gage was all over the shop!

I do think that the Tops supermarket is fantastic and there are lots of things in there that I could not get before, but other than the Kebab shop outside I even though the food hall was a bit lame, I was expecting a lot more variety and felt a bit short changed.

I don’t know about everybody else but I also got the impression that the place had been finished as a bit of a rush job, there were wires all over the place, shoddily taped to the floor and it looks to me like a few wall tiles might have fallen off. And what in heaven’s name is Lady Parking?

I don’t mean to sound ungrateful, but is this the best that the huge investment could produce? And where is the cinema?

Maybe I am just expecting too much but I would be interested in the opinion of the other island residents.

Julia Randell

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