Spark has opened a new store in the BNZ Centre on Cashel Street and plans to celebrate with Cantabrians this Friday 20thJanuary, 11am–1pm.
The Spark ‘Automatic Thanks Machine’ (ATM) is making its way to Christchurch for the store opening. People will be able to talk to the machine via a touch screen, dance with it, and receive gifts based on their personal interests. There will be over $15,000 of gifts to be given out. More FM will also be at the store to provide music and entertainment.
Store manager Casey Leonard says she hopes the event will encourage people to come and check out the new city centre:
“This isn’t just a typical store opening for Spark. We’ve been working for well over a year to get this store open and to be among the retailers moving back into the CBD is huge for us. The event this Friday isn’t just a celebration of the new store, it’s a celebration of the wider work that’s being done on the rebuild and the fact that we’re starting to see stores in the centre again.
“We hope that people will come down this Friday and have an awesome time with us, but also see how great the new retail precinct down here is.”
Leonard, who has lived in Christchurch for nine years, believes a number of people are naturally nervous about coming back into the city centre. She admits that she was one of those people: “I was a little bit apprehensive about coming back to the city, but as soon as I saw the store – it’s got massive steel beams and other reinforcement going through it – I felt pretty safe.”
The celebration with the ATM machine has been scheduled to coincide with the Buskers’ Festival, which is set to be held in the same area.