After a slight delay last week, the Dubai Mall celebrated its grand opening on Tuesday. The shopping center boasts the world’s largest opening day, with 600 retailers open for business on day one.

From the official press release:

Sprawling over 12 million sq ft – equivalent in size to more than 50 soccer pitches – with an internal floor area of 5.9 million sq ft and a gross leasable area of 3.77 million sq ft, The Dubai Mall is the flagship development of Emaar Malls Group, the shopping malls subsidiary of global property developer Emaar Properties.

When fully operational, The Dubai Mall will have over 1,200 stores of which nearly 165 retailers – equaling 1.1 million sq ft, or 30% of the total gross leasable area of the mall – are either new to the region, or opening standalone or flagship stores for the very first time in Dubai. The retail mix includes two anchor department stores – Galeries Lafayette and Bloomingdale’s, both opening their first store in the Middle East at The Dubai Mall; 220 gold & jewellery outlets; 160 food & beverage outlets including Dubai’s largest food court with 40 outlets; a supermarket and an organic food mart.

Chadstone, in Victoria, AU, celebrates tasty spring treats this weekend at the Chadstone Festival of Food. On Friday, cookbook author Donna Hay kicks things off by cooking of recipes from her new book, followed by a signing.

This is followed up with a busy weekend of activities. Some of the delicious demonstrations include lessons on cooking for a healthy lifestyle, cooking with fresh produce, baking bread, and cooking pasta. For the more decadent shoppers, there will be wine tasting events, cocktail recipes, and a barista competition.

The festival commemorates the opening of Chadstone’s fresh food precinct, which includes supermarkets, gourmet food markets, and eateries.

Defying the crunch: shopping magnet opens in London

Agence France-Presse, FR

A shopping centre dubbed the largest in-town retail complex in Europe will defiantly open its doors in London on Thursday — just as most Britons start tightening their belts ahead of a looming recession. The undulating glass roof of the 1.7-billion-pound (2.1-billion-euro, 2.6-billion-dollar) Westfield London rises out of the redeveloped west of the capital, covering an area the size of Buckingham Palace and its gardens …

DJs spin music net for mall shoppers

Denver Post, USA

DJ ToxSick drew an audience one recent Saturday as his crew formed a circle around his turntables inside the Puma store at the Tysons Corner mall in northern Virginia. With hip-hop music blasting, each takes a turn in the middle, popping and locking as they hype each other and the crowd. “Oh, that’s hot,” Fat Rawk says, one hand twirling a washcloth in the air. Onlookers bob their heads to the pulsing bass, and most eventually make their way through the doors and into the store …

UK retailers boost their website usability

New Media Age, UK

Top UK high street retailers have improved their website usability with the average score reaching 68%, up from 57% last year. The annual report from usability specialist Webcredible found WHSmith has knocked HMV from pole position to joint third, with a score of 83% – up 33% from last year’s study …

Star attraction puts a new spin on Melbourne

Travel News Gazette, AU

The largest observation wheel in the southern hemisphere and the third largest observation wheel in the world is about to be launched in Australia.The Southern Star observation wheel will open to the public in November at Waterfront City in Docklands, Melbourne and is expected to attract 1.5 million guests in the first year. Standing 40-storeys high with a 120-metre orbit, the more than AU$100 million wheel is only 15 metres less in height than the London Eye …

Artists show their wares at 10th Annual Fall ArtWalk

Las Vegas Sun, USA

People making a regular trip to the grocery store Saturday and Sunday at the Trails Village Center in Summerlin also experienced a trip to Las Vegas’ largest juried art show during the 10th Annual Fall ArtWalk. White tents spanned the length of the shopping center, where more than 70 new and returning artists stood to display paintings, jewelry, sculptures and other art media to about 6,000 attendees …

Metro Vancouver pilot project on mall trash underway at Park Royal

News1130, CA

It’s ‘Waste Reduction Week’…so why is there a huge pile of trash sitting behind Park Royal in West Vancouver? It’s part of a Metro Vancouver pilot project to eventually reduce the amount of mall garbage going to landfills. The giant pile of garbage has been dumped at the mall’s back parking lot, and a team from Metro Vancouver is picking through it, taking inventory of what they find. Cindy Papa from Park Royal says they’ve been surpruised so far. “There’s cardboard in there that shouldn’t be there…we have recycling bins. There’s packaging and organics that we should be sorting out” …