Mall a refuge for the old and lonely

Lynmall, Auckland, 8.54am: It's a symphony of whining vacuum-cleaners, punctuated by the squeaking percussion of roller-doors as the shopping day gets underway.

Some of the stalls in the aisles are still draped in blue sheets, giving them a forlorn air. But the mall doors have been open since 8.30am and there is already a queue at the Muffin Break, a fair few grey heads among them. Eight tables are occupied.

Retired friends Margaret Borrie and Joy Pitcher are ordering large mugs of coffee. Wearing brushed cotton clothing, they are dawdling their way to a two-hour line-dancing class at the nearby community centre.

Suggest that opening hours be pushed back and Mrs Borrie looks disconcerted.

"I don't like that idea," she says, shaking her neat curls. "I'm up at 6am and I'm ready to go out. Later in the day I get very tired."

Arm-in-arm in front of a women's clothing store, Colleen Wilson and a friend are discussing the display of summer outfits. Both retired, they go out early so they can do their supermarket shopping, "have a cuppa" and return home by 11.30am, the rest of the day for other activities.

"If you've got to wait until 10am, you're not home till lunchtime, and the day's gone," says Mrs Wilson.

She often sees older, lonely people at the mall, wandering around, from the minute it opens.

"So many people are lonely. I see the same people here all the time." Maybe, she speculates, being around the shopping centre as it opens makes them feel secure, that they have a place to go or something to structure their day.

Security supervisor Rona Kingi, clinking her way through the centre, agrees.

"When we open the doors there are older people waiting. They're early risers and they get into the pattern."

When the door-opening time was recently changed from 8am to 8.30am, she says, "we had heaps of complaints. The elderly people like to come in to the food court early and have coffee".

It appears, however, that opinions on shop opening hours are related to age and life stage.

At the ECM CD store, Teresa Ewan, 31, and Jack Graves, 17, don't see many customers before 10am. He loves the idea of a 10am start for sleeping in , but says the standard 9am-5.30pm day has its merits: "Getting the working day over and done with as soon as possible".

Ms Ewan says she can see the benefits of giving shoppers time after work.

Many of her working customers order by phone during the week, but can't get in to pick up items until the weekend.

That said, a 6pm or 6.30pm finish isn't so good for shop assistants' family lives, she says.