It seems every Melburnian has a Chadstone story. Nova Breakfast presenter Lauren Phillips once worked at Decjuba. Nine News sports presenter Clint Stanaway worked at Target. Sushi queen Anna Kasman has not one,but two outlets at Chadstone. Local mother Angela’s son got assaulted at Chadstone. Graeme and Faye Andrew met and fell in love at Chadstone. And Melissa Singer got married there.

Saturday

Singer,a friend and colleague andfashion editor ofThe Age,is a Chadstone expert. She has come here all her life and still parks in the same part of the car park as her mum. Her babysitter would take her to Myer,her first date aged 12 was at the cinema to seeAladdin. She worked at Myer as a Christmas casual. She is waiting when I alight the bus. During our hour together,she bumps into three acquaintances.

In the 1990s and 2000s Singer’s dad owned a chain of streetwear shops called Wired and one was here. “I know it wasn’t easy. Chadstone really made their tenants work for it,” Singer says.

“But if you wanted to have a successful fashion business in the 1990s you had to be at Chadstone and this is something that has continued to this very day,” she says,pointing to exclusive tenants Ralph Lauren and Diptyque. “That shows the pulling power this place has.

“It has always been said that one of the reasonsChapel Street died,is that Chadstone ate it.”

In February,Singer married Jason Sibio (not her date toAladdin) in the centre. The venue wasthe upmarket Cityfields restaurant in the new social quarter,a restaurant and entertainment development. The vast restaurant,on the very edge of Chadstone,has a grand terrace looking towards the distant CBD skyline,17 kilometres away. The couple didn’t feel they were marrying in a shopping centre.

“We saw it as we were getting married at this venue that happened to be here and also had this great hotel attached to it,and it just ticked so many of our boxes,” Singer says.

It’s in the air

Something changes when you walk into the 500-shop retail behemoth that is the Chadstone Shopping Centre. Underneath the massive steel and glass grid-shell roof,the air is somehow different. You lose sense of time. It is easy to get tired and hungry. There are never any flies. Everything in the world you could possibly want is here. Except a gym or a Woolworths (both closed and under renovation).

It turns out that strange difference is not imagination,or marketing hype,but real. The building is pressurised so customers feel a rush of air coming at them when they walk in.

The controlled air pressure,free car park (Australia’s biggest),valet parking,hands-free shopping,stylists,butler service,parents’ rooms,art sculptures,and free bus from Federation Square that brings nearly 100,000 shoppers annually,is all part of the retail strategy to allow visitors “to live all of their life needs” on site.

Even the temperature is managed. “We essentially like to keep it at 23 degrees,” says centre manager Daniel Boyle.

Is that to make me hungry and drive me to the food court? “No,that is certainly an urban myth,” Boyle says.

Cityfields has since closed,a rare Chadstone failure. In September,another vacant restaurant opposite was replaced by a bright pink Hello Kitty-branded cafe. It was a smash hit.

Silly me. I thought the Hello Kitty cafe was just another food outlet,but manager Susie Wong says it is a “marketing touchpoint”,part of Chadstone’s Hello Kitty campaign across the entire centre,which included a nine-metre sculpture by Brisbane graffiti artist Sofles outside the Louis Vuitton store,and lots of branded merchandise.

“We had 1500 people wanting to come into a Hello Kitty cafe just to have a coffee and a drink,” says Wong,who will open a cafe branded by the Japanese character next year in Melbourne Central.

On the other side of the centre,out in the open air,a travelator takes me past a car park to the luxury and grandly named Hotel Chadstone Melbourne MGallery Collection,where Vicinity Centre,co-owners of the shopping centre,are hosting me.

The five-star luxury hotel has a rooftop bar and pool with views to the distant CBD,250 rooms and suites with dusky pink carpets,marble fittings and curtains that open as soon as you walk in. Visitors over the weekend come from as far away as South Africa,and more than a few guests who sheepishly admit they are locals.

Later on Saturday,I spot a familiar-looking guest,former Geelong captain Joel Selwood in the hotel lobby,cradling his months-old baby wrapped in blue cloth. Selwood turns out to be one of many such fathers who walk around the centre holding their kids of varying ages,mainly so they can fit their shopping bags in the stroller.

Sunday

In the food court,an Orthodox Jewish family of seven,the father and sons all wearing yarmulkes,watch fascinated through a big window as the chef at Master Lanzhou Beef Noodle threads dough through his fingers,creating the noodle strips. The family moves on to the next sight.

Even though it is the busiest time of year,it takes me a while to notice an undeniable fact. Many people walking through the wide corridors simply aren’t carrying shopping bags.

Singer calls it “shoppingtainment”. Many visitors here turn up for the sights and sounds and food – but not necessarily to stop and shop.

Bright Moon Goh,61,and her husband Leong,60,love to come to Chadstone – but mainly to exercise. The couple walk two laps around the ground floor and two laps of the lower ground floor,taking an hour.

“When it’s hot,here it’s cooling. When it’s cold or rainy,here it is nice,” says Bright Moon,who first came to the centre 40 years ago from Malaysia while a computer science student at Monash University.

“If we do buy things here,a lot of times it’s[an] impulse buy,” says Leong,admitting that they will often stop for coffee or lunch.

“It’s Asian culture,I think,we like shopping and eating,” Bright Moon says.

A side corridor to a service lift displays large black and white photos of Chadstone past. TheMyer family built the first iteration of Chadstone in 1960 (there have been about 50 updates since). The original open air mall with 72 shops and a Myer department store was built on part of the old site of the Convent of the Good Shepherd,where young girls were sent by their families and the children’s court.

Centuries earlier,the lands were occupied by the Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung and Bunurong peoples,who used to camp along nearby river and creek banks,sourcing plants,eels,mussels,waterfowl and fish.

Businessman John Gandel bought the shopping centre in 1983 and enclosed the mall the following year. At opening (1960) it was worth £6 million;today,after constant investment,it is worth $6.28 billion. The Gandel Group owns 50 per cent and the publicly listed Vicinity Centres the other 50 per cent.

“Of everything I have achieved in business I am most proud of Chadstone,” Gandel tellsThe Agein an email.

Given Melbourne’s size,he says it is remarkable that Chadstone is one of the world’s five most successful shopping centres.

“There’s a high chance that if you’re a Melburnian,you’ve been to Chaddy,” he says.

“Often,I will walk through the mall or sit in the food court and just watch the people around me. They are happy,they are relaxed. It’s a nice place to be and it gives me great pleasure to see this.”

Monday

I don’t expect the centre to be open at 7am but of course it is. Staff need to restock. A man in fluoro moves a pallet of cardboard boxes taller than he. A cleaner who started work at 12.30am says he is earning “good money” at $34 an hour.

On the edge of the food court,four sushi chefs are preparing hand rolls at the Sushi Jiro takeaway outlet,about a three-minute walk from the Sushi Jiro restaurant. Sitting next to her chain’s signature sushi train,owner Anna Kasman agrees being a tenant in Chadstone can be harder than elsewhere,but it is a must for her business. “They need to uphold the reputation as ... one of the most successful centres in Australia. So it’s not for[everyone],” she says.

Upstairs at the light and bright Au79 cafe,in the middle of the fashion district,Kaye and Graeme Andrew enjoy a fruit juice and tell how they met and fell in love here in 1969 while working for the State Bank of Victoria,and dating,as they put it,on the sly.

Kaye,then 17,fell pregnant,says Graeme,who was then 19. “I told the manager what was going on and that we were getting married next month.” Staff didn’t say a word but organised a wedding present.

Over the years,Chadstone has consistently drawn them back:Kaye,73,spent 20 years working at Myer,until 2013. Even their granddaughter just got a Christmas job at women’s clothing retailer Seed. “We can’t get away,can we?” says Graeme,75.

In February,patrons were shocked by a bashing in the food court. A group kicked and punched a 15-year-old in the head. They stole his phone,broke his gold chain and tried to steal his clothes. The boy’s mother,Angela,who did not want to use her last name to protect her son’s privacy,toldThe Age at the time she was “disappointed with Chadstone,of course,and disappointed with general humanity”.

Police later told Angela that an offender was convicted in court in August,including an order to pay the boy $786 compensation for the phone. Angela says her son hasn’t received a cent.

“I am just grateful he is OK. Praying to God this never happens to him again.”

Boyle says any large public place will have its share of anti-social behaviour,and Chadstone is no exception. “The benefit of somewhere like Chadstone is that we can curate the environment around the deployment of security resources,security infrastructure and a very swift level of response.”

Next year,the centre will open a new fresh food offering,the Market Pavilion.

“I have lost count of the number of development applications that have come through council for Chadstone,” said Melina Sehr,mayor of Stonnington Council and a councillor since 2001.

She criticisedthe state government’s proposal to make Chadstone one of its activity centres,which will throw an 800-metre catchment for high-rise residential towers around the shopping centre and rob locals of the right to object to planning decisions.

The centre is a “good corporate neighbour” but transport needs improvement,Sehr says.

“We all know the Chadstone car parking disasters around Christmas and Boxing Day – that has always been a big issue for us. We cannot continue to rely on the dependence of cars around Chadstone.”

Boyle is aware of the acute focus on cars.

“There’s few conversations I have with anyone that I meet that don’t involve car parking,” he says.

Next year when the fresh food Market Pavilion opens,the centre will have just under 11,500 car park spaces (in 1960 it had 2500). Most parking will be free,but shoppers who stay more than two hours in zones near the redeveloped food section will pay for the first time.

Parking can be slower at peak times,Boyle admits,but endless circling is a “bit of an urban myth”.

“Habitual customers wanting to park in the same spot – that may not necessarily be the spot where the free car parks are,” he explains.

Electronic monitoring takes a snapshot of cars every five seconds and a computer system calculates the quickest route to the park,which is displayed on digital signs on approach roads.

“That may not be where they thought they’d park,but we’ll get them there very quickly,” Boyle says.

On peak days such as Boxing Day,the centre will have up to 40 traffic controllers supervising parking.

“Vic Roads will adjust the sequencing of the traffic lights off property to make sure that we can get people in and out,” Boyle says.

Boyle doesn’t agree that Chadstone swallowed Chapel Street,and cautiously talks about consumer need. “And if the mix,the offer,the experience is not curated to meet the needs of the consumers,then they will make a decision to go somewhere else.”

Ten years ago,Gandel and Vicinity decided Chadstone needed to become a second city,adding the social quarter dining and entertainment precinct,50,000 square metres of office space,the hotel and,next year,the revitalised fresh food precinct Market Pavilion.

He has further undisclosed plans to grow.

“There’s strong demand for neighbourhoods where people can live,work,and play within a 20-minute walk from home. I sometimes think that the various levels of government don’t see what Chadstone could be,” John Gandel says.

“They’ve not adequately considered the opportunities. With meaningful government support and support of the many others,there is so much more we can do. There is so much more we can be.”

Tuesday

It is time for me to leave. The 11.45am shopping bus is lightly patronised (the afternoon buses are booked solid). But when it pulls back in at Federation Square,about 40 shoppers are waiting to jump on board.

At Flinders Street Station the air temperature feels wrong,and I wonder why the footpath isn’t shiny and clean. I realise I have no idea where my house keys are.

Leimor Penjueli and George Qalo have returned to Fiji. They report the shopping trip was really good,and they bought Christmas presents,a PlayStation 5 and two pairs of sneakers for George. Over the course of their day in the shopping capital,they spent $1700.

Stephen Brook visited Chadstone and the Chadstone Hotel as a guest of Vicinity Group.

Start the day with a summary of the day’s most important and interesting stories,analysis and insights.Sign up for our Morning Edition newsletter.