Yellowknife (Aug 23/06) - There has been a veritable cacophony of symphonic sounds at the 50th street entrance at Centre Square Mall the last few weeks.

While the official line from mall managers of the downtown shopping centre is "no comment," businesses there said the classical tunes have done wonders to prevent loitering outside the entrance.

"It's a dramatic difference, there's no one there," said Bootlegger manager Kyla Kakfwi Scott.

Before the music began blaring two or three weeks ago, she said there were always five to 10 people standing in front of the entrance, causing "undesirable congestion."

"It's a little intimidating (for customers)," said Scott.

CD Plus manager Aaron Hernandez said he's enjoying the music too.

"I think it's great. It forces people that usually hang out there to leave," said Hernandez.

He figures people who used to loiter are annoyed by the classical music.

While he hasn't made official complaints about people loitering in front of the mall, he said customers and other mall tenants have. "It's an ongoing problem," he said.

Hernandez said he'd like it if the music continued.

But not everybody is as impressed. "We used to hang out there all the time," said Charmaine Broadhead.

Broadhead and her friends don't hang out at the entrance as much. When they do, they try to drown out the music with conversation. She said many people don't care if classical music is blaring and stand in front of the doors anyway.

Natasha Ramm, who noticed the music last week, said it cuts down on how many smokers stand in front of the doors.

"I think it's a great idea," said Ramm.

Tess Halldorson and Brittney Buss are big fans of the music and don't mind listening for a minute before they do their shopping.

"It's cool, I like it," said Halldorson.

"There are less people, but the music doesn't really matter," said Buss.

Mall property manager Sam Gamble declined to go into specifics about why classical music is playing at the entrance. He said it was against mall policy.