Public parks - or theme malls

On Sunday afternoon we took a walk in the Botanic Gardens. The weather was miserable, cold and wet. But we weren't the only ones enjoying the park regardless. There were even people out on the river.
We mainly went to look at plants in the New Zealand native section. We're gathering ideas on what will go best in our own small garden.
Later on we came upon a large new shop which has been built right in the middle of the park. It sells books, calendars, souvenir tea towels and coasters, etc.
There were two staff but they had no customers. I wondered why they were there. I thought if people wanted to buy things they would prefer to go to a mall - warm and dry in winter, air conditioned in summer and trollies to carry things to their car.
I don't know how a shop like that in the gardens could pay for itself. Maybe they're not paying the full price for the ground rental.
Sometimes public property is rated by the accountants as worthless rather than priceless.
I saw this article by Simon Jenkins in The Guardian with much more eloquent comment on the commercialising of public parks.

Oh, and yes, wandering around the gardens was a great way to spend the afternoon. Only I didn't take my camera with me so I've nothing to show for it.