There was a carnival atmosphere on Friday as shoppers poured in to look over the ‘‘new’’ Westfield Miranda.
Senior executives of the Scentre Group, the Westfield owner, looked on as the crowds arrived, many using the new Kingsway entrance with its upgraded pedestrian crossing.
Police got in on the act with random-breath testing on the Kingsway between Miranda and Caringbah.
Ninety new shops opened on Friday November 21, with the number to climb to 100 during the next week.
The official opening will take place next Thursday November 27.
Many shoppers arrived well before the official 9.30am opening time for stores.
The outdoor cafe-restaurant area around the old fig tree was a huge attraction.
Many people commented on the curved staircases between the levels, the variety of shops and the spaciousness of the malls.
A queue quickly formed outside the Windsor Smith store which had an offer of a pair of shoes for just $20 to the first 50 customers.
Madeleine Phillips and Lillian Palumberi, of Lugarno, had first pick as they were first in line, arriving at 6.40am.
Not so lucky were Gulsan Mannan and Alina Yasim, who travelled from Liverpool.
They were ‘‘too late’’ for the cheap footwear but enjoyed looking around the new shopping malls.
The range of shops was tremendous, they said.
Katie Alpen, of Miranda, said the new malls were ‘‘beautiful, very impressive’’.
‘‘It’s also good to have a nice outdoor area where you can take kids if they get restless,’’ she said.
‘‘It looks to have lots for everyone.’’
Brie Stanley, of Burraneer, said ‘‘the whole thing looks pretty amazing, and I really like the outdoor cafe-restaurant area’’.
‘‘We saw the artist’s impressions but it looks better in real life.’’
Vlado Jenco and Ondrej Furik, from Suspenders Cleaning, were cleaning the last of the store windows as shoppers were arriving.
‘‘We worked until midnight and came back at 6am,’’ Mr Furik said.
‘‘Between 6am and 9am, we did the windows of about 15 shops and other special cleaning requests too.’’
Do you like what has been done in the refurbished centre?
