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Woodbine Centre

Johnny Au said:
It would be an excellent idea, even with plenty of competition nearby such as Playtime Bowl and the Rinx.
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Yorkdale Is Not Going To Do That, It Uses To Have A Forest Where Kids Would Go To And Have A Items To Buy In Their, That's The Closest Thing They Got To A Play Area At The Time
 
kade1064 said:
McDonald's Was In The Mall, How It Could Of Went To The Food Court
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The McDonald's I remember was inside Woodbine's Fantasy Fair - off to the left side near of the entrances on
the top floor. A portion of that McDonald's may have also stretched out to where the Tim Hortons is now.

I'll always remember the last time I visited the McDonald's in Woodbine's Fantasy Fair. It was around 2004 and McDonald's
was just starting to sell salads as part of their menu.

During the time, there was also a promotion running at the chain (probably Monopoly or something similar) and I had won
a free salad. To claim my prize, I had to solve a skill-testing question (simple math) and hand the paper back to the cashier.

Being the idiotic teenager that I was, I wrote down my answer and left my name as "James @ssador". The McDonald's
cashier smiled, told me I got the question wrong and still gave me my salad out of pity.

Former Woodbine McDonald's employee, wherever you are, I hope you got a promotion before that location went under.
Some heroes wear capes. Others hand out free salads.
 
204871
 
I hope the recent brown water incident next to Woodbine's elevator wasn't a promotional
stunt for Poop Cafe...
 
Rob said:
Woodbine Center and Westwood Mall

I hadn't been to Woodbine Center for close to ten years but having seen this thread I decided to stop by when I was in Rexdale this afternoon.

It is a lot quieter there than I remember it. The food court was moderately busy at the peak of the dinner hour. The lighting set-up around the large skylight in the food court had more light bulbs out than working. The washroom was gross.

Zellers seemed slow and The Bay was almost empty. The top level of The Bay has been converted into what appears to be a clearance center for a lot of furniture and beds. There are dozens of ceiling tiles that have collapsed because of a leaky roof and many more that have the brown staining that suggest water damage. They appear to be doing some roofing on the east side of the Sears as the asphalt gizmo was sitting there when I passed by. It would appear that The Bay needs roofing work very soon also. The bottom level of The Bay store isn't as full of merchandise as the one at Sherway is and it looks like they are in a decline based on this and the almost customer-less furniture center upstairs. Amusingly they were playing "One" by the Bee Gees in the cosmetic area, an obscure song from the mid 80's and that combined with the store itself made me think we were stuck in that era.

Fantasy Fair was really slow as well. Many of the rides were running with only a small number of riders. It's amazing that they maintain this although maybe they have no idea what else to put in there so they just leave it hoping it draws some customers into the mall?

As far as the shopping concourse there were several vacancies. I noted at least two right near the entrance to The Bay on the upstairs level. There are still some chain stores there. A SportChek is located sort of below the Fantasy Fair on the bottom level and there are a few other smaller stores I saw, such as EB Games.

Overall though the visit was kind of sad since I remember this place being a lot busier and current than it is today.

But then I decided to head over to the Westwood Mall in Malton and check that out since I hadn't been there in years either. I wanted to see the modified bus loop as they have erected some sort of building there for the staff. There seems to be more bus traffic in and out of there now than ever and they have, at some point, installed traffic signals for buses exiting the east driveway. Cars also use this entrance enroute to the north side parking lot which seems to make the whole area an accident waiting to happen.

There was a parking lot amusement set-up with a ferris wheel and a poor mans Gravitron, among other things. Many of these were lit up and running but no passengers were on board although the cold weather and rain likely partly explains that.

Inside Westwood the Food Basics was insanely busy and the rest of the mall (except for the CIBC and Canada Trust) had only light traffic. This mall always had that old mall smell and it still does and that combined with a totally unappealing array of flea-marketish stores (like the "Smokes & Pets" store) makes it a pretty morbid and dull place. Somehow the Reitmans is still going as is a Sooter's Photography and the Home Hardware beside the Food Basics. The Carleton Cards store has been changed into a clearance center for plates with the walls still reminding you of the card store that was once there. The restaurant at the south end has been closed up and converted to an area rug place. The green tile floor from the restaurant remains telling an observant person that something else must have been there at one time. The Price Chopper has been closed up at the south end as well. The Shoppers Drug Mart still hasn't received the new look and the huge block letters remain on the sign in the mall and the older style store layout inside remains.

The Food Court was as dumpy as I always remembered it and I didn't have the stomach to check out the adjoining washroom which was always more of a latrine than anything else. There are no restaurants in the Food Court of any recognizable name and they all appeared to be Indian restaurants.

Interestingly though they seem to have a project underway to upgrade/update the facade on the west side facing Goreway. The former two-story Zellers piece has had a new face put on it and there is some furniture clearance joint in that spot now. The ceiling is quite high which would seem to suggest that they just converted this higher section that was two levels in the Zellers days into one. There is a large architectural drawing posted in the mall showing the new elevations on the west side. The east side of the mall is quite rough looking despite the coat of white paint on everything.

I always figured that Woodbine Center may have crippled Westwood but it now appears that Woodbine is on the way down too. Westwood would seem to have a future being a large transit terminal and also a community area for many of the East Indian people in the Malton area to shop and visit. I have no memories of Westwood pre-mid 90's and wonder if it ever was full of trendy stores back in the '70's? Zellers was there until early 1998 and even then there wasn't much in there.
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Westwood Mall, Has Changed ALOT. It's Westwood Square Mall. It has a better food court & Alot More Stores, Walmart, Hsbc bank, lazeez shawarma, And many more
 
Unless it moved to a new location inside the mall, Cinnabon's kiosk has been removed from the Woodbine Centre.

Oliver Jewellery (OOOOH YEAH) has also set up shop at what I believe used to be Black's Photography (near the TD Bank). Oliver is currently running daily on-screen ads before every movie at Woodbine's Imagine Cinemas. Included are a few photos of the new location here - Oliver Jewellery Woodbine

Imagine Cinemas really needs to work on that stale popcorn smell.
 
J.M.Z. said:
Unless it moved to a new location inside the mall, Cinnabon's kiosk has been removed from the Woodbine Centre.

Oliver Jewellery (OOOOH YEAH) has also set up shop at what I believe used to be Black's Photography (near the TD Bank). Oliver is currently running daily on-screen ads before every movie at Woodbine's Imagine Cinemas. Included are a few photos of the new location here - Oliver Jewellery Woodbine

Imagine Cinemas really needs to work on that stale popcorn smell.
Click to expand...
Oliver Jewellery should fund the cinema's popcorn. After all, to the Lone Arranger, the Cash Man, Russell Oliver, king of Toronto pawnbrokers, it's pocket change.
 
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