Canadian expat in Brisbane shares what she thinks is weird about Australian shopping centres

A Canadian expat living in Australia has spilled about what she finds “weird” about the malls or “malls” Down Under.

Cassie Chuang has been living in Brisbane for almost a year now and while she found some things in Aussie shops odd, such as paid parking and short opening hours, she said others were ‘genius’.

She was surprised to see that unlike in Canada, shoppers can take trolleys anywhere in downtown they want, even on the escalators, instead of only being able to use them in the stores they come from.

However, Cassie did not assess that malls close at 5 p.m. every day except Thursday, or that customers must pay expensive parking fees for more than three hours of parking.

The expat shared her thoughts in a TikTok video that caught the attention of hundreds of Aussies who quickly corrected her jargon and explained why they love Australian malls.

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Cassie Chuang (pictured) has lived in Brisbane for almost a year and shared things she found ‘weird’ about Aussie malls, from paying for parking to the escalators

Cassie said it was “ridiculous” to have to pay for parking at the stores after three hours.

“What if I just want to watch a movie and then hang out at the mall with my friends for another three hours?” she said.

‘You really have to watch how long you’ve been there, otherwise you have to pay the expensive parking fee.’

Cassie liked the handy feature some parking garages have of red and green lights that tell drivers which spaces are and are not free.

However, she wasn’t a fan of the opening hours of most Australian stores, which close around 5pm every day and 9pm on Thursdays.

Cassie was impressed that shoppers can pick up trolleys from the store they got it from and return it in the parking lot, which she said was “so convenient, perfect and amazing”

“Thursday here in Australia is their late night shopping day, so that’s the day when all the malls and grocery stores are open later,” she explained.

“I would think that on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays people really have time to shop and at home they always close around 9pm.”

Cassie was impressed that shoppers can pick up carts from the store they got it from and return it in the parking lot, which she said was “so convenient, perfect, and amazing.”

“That was so strange to me when I first came here and I was like wow, this is genius, this is a great idea, why aren’t we doing this in Canada?” she said.

“In Canada you’re not allowed to take that shopping cart away from that department store or whatever store you took it from, not even the grocery store, you’re supposed to take it back to that grocery store.”

Cassie was also impressed by the flat escalators in Australian shopping centers and the ability for customers to bring their trolleys.

“So much better than the way America is doing it now. It’s just so much faster and so much more convenient,” she said.

In North America, Cassie explained, department stores have a separate escalator just for shopping carts.

Aussies took the comments to heart to explain to the expat that the terms used in Down Under are ‘mall’ rather than ‘mall’ and ‘trolley’ and not ‘cart’.

‘Mall?? Oh! You mean ‘the shops’!’ one woman joked.

The flat “escalators” are actually called escalators, escalators are the ones with stairs,” explained another.

Others shared the reasons behind the unusual trading hours, while others shared how to park without paying fees.

“I’m pretty sure Thursday is the nighttime day because it aligns with most people’s payday and doesn’t interfere with Friday night life,” one viewer wrote.

“You can scan your movie ticket to get an extra free hour,” another suggested.

‘It depends on the states; in some states Thursday night is the long shopping night and in some states it’s Friday night,” a third added about trading hours.