
A shopping mall (or simply mall) is a large indoor
shopping center
A shopping center in American English, shopping centre in English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth English (see American and British English spelling differences#-re, -er, spelling differences), shopping complex, shopping arcade, ...
, usually
anchored by
department store
A department store is a retail establishment offering a wide range of consumer goods in different areas of the store under one roof, each area ("department") specializing in a product category. In modern major cities, the department store mad ...
s. The term ''mall'' originally meant
a pedestrian promenade with shops along it, but in the late 1960s, it began to be used as a generic term for the large enclosed shopping centers that were becoming increasingly commonplace.
In the United Kingdom and other countries, shopping malls may be called ''shopping centres''.
In recent decades, malls have declined considerably in
North America
North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres. North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South Ameri ...
, partly due to the
retail apocalypse
The retail apocalypse refers to the closing of numerous brick-and-mortar retail stores in the United States, especially those of large chains, beginning in the 2010s and accelerating due to the mandatory closures during the COVID-19 pandemic.
In ...
, particularly in subprime locations, and some have closed and become so-called "
dead mall
A dead mall, also known as a ghost mall or zombie mall, is a shopping mall that has low consumer traffic or is deteriorating in some manner.
Many malls in North America are considered "dead" when they have no surviving anchor store or successor ...
s". Successful exceptions have added entertainment and experiential features, added
big-box store
A big-box store, a hyperstore, a supercenter, a superstore, or a megastore is a physically large retail establishment, usually part of a chain of stores. The term sometimes also refers, by extension, to the company that operates the store. The ...
s as anchors, or converted to other specialized shopping center formats such as
power centers,
lifestyle centers
A lifestyle center (American English), or lifestyle centre (Commonwealth English), is an open-air shopping center which aims to create a "pedestrian-friendly, town-like atmosphere with sidewalks, landscaping, ambient lighting, and park benches. ...
,
factory outlet
An outlet store, factory outlet or factory store is a brick and mortar or online store where manufacturers sell their merchandise directly to the public. Products at outlet stores are usually sold at reduced prices compared to regular stores due ...
centers, and
festival marketplace
A festival marketplace is a European-style shopping market in the United States. It is an effort to revitalize downtown areas in major US cities begun in the late 20th century.
Festival marketplaces were a leading Central business district, downt ...
s.
In Canada, shopping centres have frequently been replaced with mixed-use high-rise communities. In many
European countries
The list below includes all entities falling even partially under any of the various common definitions of Europe, geographical or political. Fifty generally recognised sovereign states, Kosovo with limited, but substantial, international reco ...
and
Asian countries
This is a list of sovereign states and dependent territories in Asia. It includes sovereign state, fully recognized states, states with limited but substantial international recognition, ''de facto'' states with little or no international recogn ...
, shopping malls continue to grow and thrive.
Terminology
In the United States,
Persian Gulf countries
The Arab states of the Persian Gulf, also known as the Gulf Arab states (), refers to a group of Arab states bordering the Persian Gulf. There are seven member states of the Arab League in the region: Bahrain, Kuwait, Iraq, Oman, Qatar, Saudi ...
, and India, the term ''shopping mall'' is usually applied to enclosed retail structures (and is generally abbreviated to simply ''mall''), while ''shopping center'' usually refers to open-air retail complexes; both types of facilities usually have large
parking lot
A parking lot or car park (British English), also known as a car lot, is a cleared area intended for parking vehicles. The term usually refers to an area dedicated only for parking, with a durable or semi-durable surface. In most jurisdi ...
s, face major traffic
arterials, and have few pedestrian connections to surrounding neighborhoods.
[''Urban Geography: A Global Perspective'' Michael Pacione, (Routledge, Informa UK Ltd. 2001) .] Outside of North America, the terms ''shopping precinct'' and ''shopping
arcade
Arcade most often refers to:
* Arcade game, a coin-operated video, pinball, electro-mechanical, redemption, etc., game
** Arcade video game, a coin-operated video game
** Arcade cabinet, housing which holds an arcade video game's hardware
** Arcad ...
'' are also used.
In the UK, such complexes are considered ''shopping centres''; however, ''shopping centre'' covers many more sizes and types of centers than the North American ''mall''. Other countries follow UK usage. In
Canadian English
Canadian English (CanE, CE, en-CA) encompasses the Variety (linguistics), varieties of English language, English used in Canada. According to the 2016 Canadian Census, 2016 census, English was the first language of 19.4 million Canadians or ...
, and often in Australia and New Zealand, the term ''mall'' may be used informally but ''shopping centre'' or merely ''centre'' will feature in the name of the complex (such as
Toronto Eaton Centre
CF Toronto Eaton Centre, commonly referred to simply as the Eaton Centre, is a shopping mall and office complex in the Downtown Toronto, downtown core of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is owned and managed by Cadillac Fairview (CF). It was named ...
). The term ''mall'' is less-commonly a part of the name of the complex.
Types
The
International Council of Shopping Centers
The International Council of Shopping Centers, doing business as ICSC, is the global trade association of what it calls the "Marketplaces Industry" (i.e., shopping centers, shopping malls, and all other retail real estate).
History
Founded in ...
, based in New York City, classifies two types of shopping centers as malls: regional malls and super regional malls. A regional mall, per the International Council of Shopping Centers, is a shopping mall with to
gross leasable area
In architecture, construction, and real estate, floor area, floor space, or floorspace is the area (measured in square metres or square feet) taken up by a building or part of it. The ways of defining "floor area" depend on what factors of the bui ...
with at least two
anchor store
In North American, Australian and New Zealand retail, an "anchor tenant", sometimes called an "anchor store", "draw tenant", or "key tenant", is a considerably larger tenant in a shopping mall, often a department store or retail chain. They are ...
s.
A super-regional mall, per the International Council of Shopping Centers, is a shopping mall with over of gross leasable area, three or more anchors, mass merchant, more variety, fashion
apparel
Clothing (also known as clothes, garments, dress, apparel, or attire) is any item worn on a human human body, body. Typically, clothing is made of fabrics or textiles, but over time it has included garments made from animal skin and other thin s ...
, and serves as the dominant shopping venue for the region () in which it is located.
Not classified as malls are smaller formats such as
strip mall
A strip mall, strip center, strip plaza or simply plaza is a type of shopping mall, shopping center common in North America and Australia where the stores are arranged in a row, with a footpath in front. Strip malls are typically developed as a ...
s and
neighborhood shopping center
A neighborhood shopping center (Commonwealth English: neighbourhood shopping centre) is an industry term in the United States for a shopping center with of gross leasable area, typically anchored by a supermarket and/or large drugstore.
Versus ...
s, and specialized formats such as
power centers,
festival marketplace
A festival marketplace is a European-style shopping market in the United States. It is an effort to revitalize downtown areas in major US cities begun in the late 20th century.
Festival marketplaces were a leading Central business district, downt ...
s, and
outlet center
An outlet store, factory outlet or factory store is a brick and mortar or online store where manufacturers sell their merchandise directly to the public. Products at outlet stores are usually sold at reduced prices compared to regular stores due ...
s.
History
Forerunners to the shopping mall

Shopping centers in general may have their origins in public markets and, in the Middle East, covered
bazaar
A bazaar or souk is a marketplace consisting of multiple small Market stall, stalls or shops, especially in the Middle East, the Balkans, Central Asia, North Africa and South Asia. They are traditionally located in vaulted or covered streets th ...
s.
In 1798, the first covered shopping passage was built in Paris, the
Passage du Caire
The Passage des Panoramas () is the oldest of the covered passages of Paris, located in the 2nd arrondissement between the Boulevard Montmartre to the north and the Rue Saint-Marc to the south. It is one of the earliest venues of the Parisian p ...
. In London, the
Royal Opera Arcade opened in 1816, and the more famous
Burlington Arcade
Burlington Arcade is a covered shopping arcade in London, England, United Kingdom. It is long, parallel to and east of Bond Street from Piccadilly to Burlington Gardens. It is a precursor to the mid-19th-century European shopping gallery and ...
opened in 1819. Western European cities in particular built many arcade-style shopping centers.
The Arcade in
Providence, Rhode Island
Providence () is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Rhode Island, most populous city of the U.S. state of Rhode Island. The county seat of Providence County, Rhode Island, Providence County, it is o ...
, built in 1828, claims to be the first shopping arcade in the United States. The
Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II
The Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II (; ) is Italy's oldest active shopping arcade and a major landmark of Milan. Housed within a four-story double arcade in the centre of town, the ''Galleria'' is named after Victor Emmanuel II, the first king of ...
in Milan, which opened in 1877, was larger than its predecessors, and inspired the use of the term "galleria" for many other shopping arcades and malls.
In the mid-20th century, with the rise of the
suburb
A suburb (more broadly suburban area) is an area within a metropolitan area. They are oftentimes where most of a metropolitan areas jobs are located with some being predominantly residential. They can either be denser or less densely populated ...
and
automobile
A car, or an automobile, is a motor vehicle with wheels. Most definitions of cars state that they run primarily on roads, Car seat, seat one to eight people, have four wheels, and mainly transport private transport#Personal transport, peopl ...
culture in the United States, a new style of shopping center was created away from
downtown
''Downtown'' is a term primarily used in American and Canadian English to refer to a city's sometimes commercial, cultural and often the historical, political, and geographic heart. It is often synonymous with its central business district ( ...
s. Early shopping centers designed for the automobile include
Market Square
A market square (also known as a market place) is an urban square meant for trading, in which a market is held. It is an important feature of many towns and cities around the world. A market square is an open area where market stalls are tradit ...
,
Lake Forest, Illinois
Lake Forest is a city located in Lake County, Illinois, United States. Per the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 19,367. The city is along the shore of Lake Michigan, and is a part of the Chicago metropolitan area and t ...
(1916), and
Country Club Plaza
The Country Club Plaza (often called The Plaza) is a privately owned regional shopping center in the Country Club District of Kansas City, Missouri, Kansas City, Missouri. Opened in 1923, it is considered to be the first planned large outdoor su ...
,
Kansas City, Missouri
Kansas City, Missouri, abbreviated KC or KCMO, is the largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri by List of cities in Missouri, population and area. The city lies within Jackson County, Missouri, Jackson, Clay County, Missouri, Clay, and Pl ...
(1924).
The suburban shopping center concept evolved further in the United States after
World War II
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
, with larger open-air shopping centers anchored by major department stores, such as the
Broadway-Crenshaw Center
Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza (alternately BHCP) is a shopping mall located in the Baldwin Hills neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. This was one of the first regional shopping centers in the United States built specifically for the autom ...
in
Los Angeles
Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...
, built in 1947 and anchored by a five-story
Broadway
Broadway may refer to:
Theatre
* Broadway Theatre (disambiguation)
* Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in professional theatres near Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, U.S.
** Broadway (Manhattan), the street
** Broadway Theatre (53rd Stre ...
and a
May Company California
May Company California was an American department store chain founded in 1881 as A. Hamburger & Sons by Asher Hamburger. It was renamed after its acquisition by The May Department Stores Company in 1923. Its flagship store and headquarters wer ...
.
Downtown pedestrian malls and use of term ''mall''
In the late 1950s and into the 1960s, the term "shopping mall" was first used, but in the original sense of the word "mall", meaning a pedestrian promenade in the U.S., or in U.K. usage, a "shopping precinct". Early downtown pedestrianized malls included the
Kalamazoo Mall
The Kalamazoo Mall, the first outdoor pedestrian shopping mall in the United States, is a section of Burdick Street in downtown Kalamazoo, Michigan.
Built for $60,000 and opened in 1959, the pedestrian mall became the first of several hundred ...
(the first, in 1959), "Shoppers' See-Way" in
Toledo
Toledo most commonly refers to:
* Toledo, Spain, a city in Spain
* Province of Toledo, Spain
* Toledo, Ohio, a city in the United States
Toledo may also refer to:
Places Belize
* Toledo District
* Toledo Settlement
Bolivia
* Toledo, Or ...
,
Lincoln Road Mall
Lincoln most commonly refers to:
* Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865), the 16th president of the United States
* Lincoln, England, cathedral city and county town of Lincolnshire, England
* Lincoln, Nebraska, the capital of Nebraska, U.S.
* Lincoln (na ...
in
Miami Beach
Miami Beach is a coastal resort city in Miami-Dade County, Florida, United States. It is part of the Miami metropolitan area of South Florida. The municipality is located on natural and human-made barrier islands between the Atlantic Ocean an ...
,
Santa Monica Mall (1965).
Although
Bergen Mall opened in 1957 using the name "mall" and inspired other suburban shopping centers to rebrand themselves as malls, these types of properties were still referred to as "shopping centers" until the late 1960s.
Enclosed malls
The enclosed shopping center, which would eventually be known as the shopping mall, did not appear in mainstream until the mid-1950s. One of the earliest examples was the
Valley Fair Shopping Center
The Valley Fair Shopping Center, Valley Fair Mall, or Valley Fair Center was a shopping mall in Appleton, in the U.S. state of Wisconsin that opened on March 10, 1955. This enclosed mall was the first weather-protected one to ever be built wit ...
in
Appleton, Wisconsin
Appleton () is the county seat of Outagamie County, Wisconsin, United States, with small portions extending into Calumet County, Wisconsin, Calumet and Winnebago County, Wisconsin, Winnebago counties. Located on the Fox River (Green Bay tributary ...
, which opened on March 10, 1955. Valley Fair featured a number of modern features including central heating and cooling, a large outdoor parking area, semi-detached anchor stores, and restaurants. Later that year the world's first fully enclosed shopping mall was opened in
Luleå
Luleå ( , , locally ; ; ) is a Cities in Sweden, city on the coast of northern Sweden, and the County Administrative Boards of Sweden, capital of Norrbotten County, the northernmost county in Sweden. Luleå has 48,728 inhabitants in its urban ...
, in northern Sweden (architect:
Ralph Erskine) and was named
''Shopping''; the region now claims the highest shopping center density in Europe.
The idea of a regionally-sized, fully enclosed shopping complex was pioneered in 1956 by the Austrian-born architect and American immigrant
Victor Gruen
Victor David Gruen, born Viktor David Grünbaum
retrieved 25 February 2012 (July 18, 1903 – February 1 ...
.
This new generation of regional-size shopping centers began with the Gruen-designed
Southdale Center
Southdale Center is a shopping mall located in Edina, Minnesota, a suburb of the Twin Cities. It opened in 1956 and is the first fully enclosed, climate-controlled shopping mall in the United States. Southdale Center has of leasable retail spac ...
, which opened in the
Twin Cities
Twin cities are a special case of two neighboring cities or urban centres that grow into a single conurbation – or narrowly separated urban areas – over time. There are no formal criteria, but twin cities are generally comparable in stat ...
suburb of
Edina, Minnesota
Edina ( , ) is a city in Hennepin County, Minnesota, Hennepin County, Minnesota, United States and a first-ring suburb of Minneapolis. The population was 53,494 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it the 18th most populous ci ...
, United States in October 1956.
For pioneering the soon-to-be enormously popular mall concept in this form, Gruen has been called the "most influential architect of the twentieth century" by
Malcolm Gladwell
Malcolm Timothy Gladwell (born 3 September 1963) is a Canadian journalist, author, and public speaker. He has been a staff writer for ''The New Yorker'' since 1996. He has published eight books. He is also the host of the podcast ''Revisionist ...
.
The first retail complex to be promoted as a "mall" was
Paramus
Paramus ( Waggoner, Walter H, ''The New York Times'', February 16, 1966. Accessed October 16, 2018. "Paramus – pronounced puh-RAHM-us, with the accent on the second syllable – may have taken its name from 'perremus' or 'perymus,' Indian for ...
,
New Jersey
New Jersey is a U.S. state, state located in both the Mid-Atlantic States, Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern United States, Northeastern regions of the United States. Located at the geographic hub of the urban area, heavily urbanized Northeas ...
's
Bergen Mall, which opened with an open-air format on November 14, 1957, and was later enclosed in 1973. Aside from
Southdale Center
Southdale Center is a shopping mall located in Edina, Minnesota, a suburb of the Twin Cities. It opened in 1956 and is the first fully enclosed, climate-controlled shopping mall in the United States. Southdale Center has of leasable retail spac ...
, significant early enclosed shopping malls were
Harundale Mall
Harundale Mall, in Glen Burnie, Anne Arundel County, Maryland, United States at the intersection of Ritchie Highway and Aquahart Road, was the first enclosed, air-conditioned mall built east of the Mississippi River.
Originally built in 1958 ...
(1958) in
Glen Burnie
Glen Burnie is an unincorporated town and census-designated place (CDP) in Anne Arundel County, Maryland, United States. It is a suburb of Baltimore. The population was 72,891 at the 2020 census.
History
In 1812, Elias Glenn, a district attorn ...
,
Maryland
Maryland ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It borders the states of Virginia to its south, West Virginia to its west, Pennsylvania to its north, and Delaware to its east ...
,
Big Town Mall (1959) in
Mesquite
Mesquite is a common name for some plants in the genera ''Neltuma'' and '' Strombocarpa'', which contain over 50 species of spiny, deep-rooted leguminous shrubs and small trees. They are native to dry areas in the Americas. Until 2022, these ge ...
,
Texas
Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...
,
Chris-Town Mall (1961) in
Phoenix,
Arizona
Arizona is a U.S. state, state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States, sharing the Four Corners region of the western United States with Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah. It also borders Nevada to the nort ...
, and
Randhurst Center (1962) in
Mount Prospect,
Illinois
Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. It borders on Lake Michigan to its northeast, the Mississippi River to its west, and the Wabash River, Wabash and Ohio River, Ohio rivers to its ...
.
Other early malls moved retailing away from the dense, commercial downtowns into the largely residential suburbs. This formula (enclosed space with stores attached, away from downtown, and accessible only by automobile) became a popular way to build retail across the world. Gruen himself came to abhor this effect of his new design; he decried the creation of enormous "land wasting seas of parking" and the spread of suburban sprawl.
Even though malls mostly appeared in suburban areas in the U.S., some U.S. cities facilitated the construction of enclosed malls downtown as an effort to revive city centers and allow them to compete effectively with suburban malls. Examples included
Main Place Mall in Buffalo (1969) and The Gallery (1977, now
Fashion District Philadelphia
Fashion District Philadelphia is a shopping mall in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, located in Center City along Market Street. It opened in 2019 on the site of a previous mall known as The Gallery and later renamed The Gallery at M ...
) in Philadelphia. Other cities created open-air
pedestrian malls
Pedestrian zones (also known as auto-free zones and car-free zones, as pedestrian precincts in British English, and as pedestrian malls in the United States and Australia) are areas of a city or town restricted to use by people on foot or ...
.
In the United States, developers such as
A. Alfred Taubman
Adolph Alfred "Al" Taubman (January 31, 1924 – April 17, 2015) was an American businessman, investor, and philanthropist.
In 2002, he was convicted for a price-fixing scheme involving the top two auction houses in the United States.
Early li ...
of
Taubman Centers
Taubman Centers, Inc. is an American real estate investment trust headquartered in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. The company invests in shopping centers, and is a subsidiary of Simon Property Group since 2020.
History
The company was founded in 19 ...
extended the concept further in 1980, with
terrazzo
Terrazzo is a composite material, poured in place or precast, which is used for floor and wall treatments. It consists of chips of marble, quartz, granite, glass, or other suitable material, poured with a cementitious binder (for chemical bind ...
tiles at the
Mall at Short Hills
The Mall at Short Hills, also known as the Short Hills Mall, is a shopping mall located in the Short Hills section of Millburn, New Jersey, United States near the interchange of Route 24, JFK Parkway (CR 649), and Route 124. It is located ...
in
New Jersey
New Jersey is a U.S. state, state located in both the Mid-Atlantic States, Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern United States, Northeastern regions of the United States. Located at the geographic hub of the urban area, heavily urbanized Northeas ...
, indoor fountains, and two levels allowing a shopper to make a circuit of all the stores. Taubman believed carpeting increased friction, slowing down customers, so it was removed. Fading daylight through glass panels was supplemented by gradually increased electric lighting, making it seem like the afternoon was lasting longer, which encouraged shoppers to linger.
Decline of shopping malls in the United States
In the United States, in the mid-1990s, malls were still being constructed at a rate of 140 a year.
But in 2001, a
PricewaterhouseCoopers
PricewaterhouseCoopers, also known as PwC, is a multinational professional services network based in London, United Kingdom.
It is the second-largest professional services network in the world and is one of the Big Four accounting firms, alon ...
study found that underperforming and vacant malls, known as "greyfield" and "dead mall" estates, were an emerging problem. In 2007, a year before the
Great Recession
The Great Recession was a period of market decline in economies around the world that occurred from late 2007 to mid-2009. , no new malls were built in America, for the first time in 50 years.
City Creek Center Mall in
Salt Lake City
Salt Lake City, often shortened to Salt Lake or SLC, is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Utah. It is the county seat of Salt Lake County, the most populous county in the state. The city is the core of the Salt Lake Ci ...
, which opened in March 2012, was the first to be built since the recession.
Malls began to lose consumers to open-air power centers and lifestyle centers during the 1990s, as consumers preferred to park right in front of and walk directly into big-box stores with lower prices and without the
overhead of traditional malls (i.e., long enclosed corridors).
[ Available via ]ProQuest
ProQuest LLC is an Ann Arbor, Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan-based global information-content and technology company, founded in 1938 as University Microfilms by Eugene Power.
ProQuest is known for its applications and information services for l ...
.[ Available via ]ProQuest
ProQuest LLC is an Ann Arbor, Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan-based global information-content and technology company, founded in 1938 as University Microfilms by Eugene Power.
ProQuest is known for its applications and information services for l ...
.
Another issue was that the growth-crazed American commercial real estate industry had simply built too many nice places to shop—far more than could be reasonably justified by the actual growth of the American population, retail sales, or any other economic indicator. The number of American shopping centers exploded from 4,500 in 1960 to 70,000 by 1986 to just under 108,000 by 2010.
Thus, the number of dead malls increased significantly in the early 21st century. The economic health of malls across the United States has been in decline, as revealed by high vacancy rates. From 2006 to 2010, the percentage of malls that are considered to be "dying" by real estate experts (have a vacancy rate of at least 40%), unhealthy (20–40%), or in trouble (10–20%) all increased greatly, and these high vacancy rates only partially decreased from 2010 to 2014.
In 2014, nearly 3% of all malls in the United States were considered to be "dying" (40% or higher vacancy rates) and nearly one-fifth of all malls had vacancy rates considered "troubling" (10% or higher). Some real estate experts say the "fundamental problem" is a glut of malls in many parts of the country creating a market that is "extremely over-retailed".
By the time shopping mall operator
Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield
Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield SE (previously Unibail-Rodamco SE) is a European multinational commercial real estate company headquartered in Paris, France, and is the owner and operator of Westfield shopping centres in the northern hemisphere. It ...
decided to exit the American market in 2022, the United States had an average of 24.5 square feet of retail space per capita (in contrast to 4.5 square feet per capita in Europe).
In 2019,
The Shops & Restaurants at Hudson Yards opened as an upscale mall in New York City with "a '
Fifth Avenue
Fifth Avenue is a major thoroughfare in the borough (New York City), borough of Manhattan in New York City. The avenue runs south from 143rd Street (Manhattan), West 143rd Street in Harlem to Washington Square Park in Greenwich Village. The se ...
' mix of shops", such as
H&M,
Zara
Zara may refer to:
Businesses
* Zara (retailer), a fashion retail company based in Spain
* Zara Investment Holding, a Jordanian holding company
* Continental Hotel Zara, Budapest, Hungary
People and fictional characters
* Zara (name), primari ...
, and
Sephora
Sephora is a French multinational retailer of personal care and beauty products, offering nearly 340 brands alongside its own private label, the Sephora Collection. Its product range includes cosmetics, skincare, fragrance, nail color, beauty t ...
below them. This is one of the first two malls built recently, along with
American Dream
The "American Dream" is a phrase referring to a purported national ethos of the United States: that every person has the freedom and opportunity to succeed and attain a better life. The phrase was popularized by James Truslow Adams during the ...
in which both opened in 2019 since
City Creek Center
City Creek Center (CCC), commonly shortened to City Creek, is a mixed-use development containing an upscale open-air shopping mall, grocery store, and office and residential buildings near Temple Square in downtown Salt Lake City, Utah, United ...
.
Online shopping has also emerged as a major competitor to shopping malls. In the
United States
The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...
, online shopping has accounted for an increasing share of total retail sales.
In 2013, roughly 200 out of 1,300 malls across the United States were going out of business. To combat this trend, developers have converted malls into other uses including attractions such as parks, movie theaters, gyms, and even fishing lakes.
In the United States, the 600,000 square foot
Highland Mall
Highland Mall was a shopping mall located in north Austin, Texas, United States, on Airport Boulevard west of Interstate 35 in Texas#Austin, I-35 and north of US Route 290. Opened in 1971, Highland Mall was Austin's first suburban shopping mall. ...
will be a campus for
Austin Community College
The Austin Community College District (ACC) is a public community college system serving the Austin, Texas, metropolitan area and surrounding Central Texas communities. The college maintains numerous campuses, centers, and distance learning opti ...
.
In
France
France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...
, the So Ouest mall outside of
Paris
Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...
was designed to resemble elegant,
Louis XV
Louis XV (15 February 1710 – 10 May 1774), known as Louis the Beloved (), was King of France from 1 September 1715 until his death in 1774. He succeeded his great-grandfather Louis XIV at the age of five. Until he reached maturity (then defi ...
-style apartments and includes of green space. The Australian mall company
Westfield launched an online mall (and later a mobile app) with 150 stores, 3,000 brands and over 1 million products.
The
COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...
also significantly impacted the retail industry. Government regulations temporarily closed malls, increased entrance controls, and imposed strict public sanitation requirements.
Design
Vertical malls
High land prices in populous cities have led to the concept of the "vertical mall", in which space allocated to retail is configured over a number of stories accessible by
elevator
An elevator (American English) or lift (Commonwealth English) is a machine that vertically transports people or freight between levels. They are typically powered by electric motors that drive traction cables and counterweight systems suc ...
s and/or
escalator
An escalator is a moving staircase which carries people between floors of a building or structure. It consists of a Electric motor, motor-driven chain of individually linked steps on a track which cycle on a pair of tracks which keep the st ...
s (usually both) linking the different levels of the mall. The challenge of this type of mall is to overcome the natural tendency of shoppers to move horizontally and encourage shoppers to move upwards and downwards.
The concept of a vertical mall was originally conceived in the late 1960s by the Mafco Company, former shopping center development division of
Marshall Field & Co. The
Water Tower Place
Water Tower Place is a large urban, mixed-use development comprising a shopping mall in a 74-story skyscraper in Chicago, Illinois, United States. The mall is located at 835 North Michigan Avenue, along the Magnificent Mile. It is named aft ...
skyscraper in
Chicago
Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...
, Illinois was built in 1975 by Urban Retail Properties. It contains a hotel, luxury condominiums, and office space and sits atop a block-long base containing an eight-level atrium-style retail mall that fronts on the
Magnificent Mile
The Magnificent Mile (sometimes locally abbreviated to the Mag Mile) is the approximately one-mile-long stretch of Michigan Avenue (Chicago), Michigan Avenue from the Chicago River to Oak Street (Chicago), Oak Street on the Near North Side ...
.
Vertical malls are common in densely populated conurbations in East and Southeast Asia. Hong Kong in particular has numerous examples such as
Times Square
Times Square is a major commercial intersection, tourist destination, entertainment hub, and Neighborhoods in New York City, neighborhood in the Midtown Manhattan section of New York City. It is formed by the junction of Broadway (Manhattan), ...
,
Dragon Centre
Dragon Centre is a nine-storey shopping centre in the Sham Shui Po area of New Kowloon, Hong Kong.
History
Located beside the historic Sham Shui Po Police Station, the mall was built on part of the site of the former Sham Shui Po Camp, ...
,
Apm APM, apm, or Apm may refer to:
Technology Computer technology
*Active policy management, a discipline within enterprise software
*Advanced Power Management, a legacy technology in personal computers
* Apple Partition Map, computer disk partiti ...
,
Langham Place,
ISQUARE
iSQUARE () is a 31-storey shopping centre located at 63 Nathan Road, Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon, Hong Kong, on the site of the former Hyatt Regency Hong Kong, Tsim Sha Tsui, Hyatt Regency Hotel. It was developed by, and is now owned by, Associ ...
,
Hysan Place
Hysan Place (, sometimes , ''hei¹ san²*'') is a shopping centre and office building at 500 Hennessy Road, Lee Garden, Causeway Bay, Hong Kong. It was developed by Hysan Development Company Limited at the former site of and was designed by ...
and
The One
The One may refer to:
Buildings
* The One (shopping centre), a shopping centre in Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon, Hong Kong
* The One (Toronto), a mixed-use skyscraper under development in Toronto, Canada
* The One, a residential skyscraper under constru ...
.
A vertical mall may also be built where the geography prevents building outward or there are other restrictions on construction, such as historic buildings or significant
archeology
Archaeology or archeology is the study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscapes. Archaeolo ...
. The
Darwin Shopping Centre
The Darwin Shopping Centre (currently promoted as The Darwin) is the main shopping centre in Shrewsbury, Shropshire, England, comprising approximately 17 per cent of the town centre's retail offer by leasable area.
It was built by John Laing ...
and associated malls in
Shrewsbury
Shrewsbury ( , ) is a market town and civil parish in Shropshire (district), Shropshire, England. It is sited on the River Severn, northwest of Wolverhampton, west of Telford, southeast of Wrexham and north of Hereford. At the 2021 United ...
, UK, are built on the side of a steep hill, around the former town walls; consequently the shopping center is split over seven floors vertically – two locations horizontally – connected by elevators, escalators and bridge walkways. Some establishments incorporate such designs into their layout, such as Shrewsbury's former
McDonald's
McDonald's Corporation, doing business as McDonald's, is an American Multinational corporation, multinational fast food chain store, chain. As of 2024, it is the second largest by number of locations in the world, behind only the Chinese ch ...
, split into four stories with multiple
mezzanines
A mezzanine (; or in Italian, a ''mezzanino'') is an intermediate floor in a building which is partly open to the double-height ceilinged floor below, or which does not extend over the whole floorspace of the building, a loft with non-sloped w ...
which featured medieval castle vaults – complete with
arrowslit
An arrowslit (often also referred to as an arrow loop, loophole or loop hole, and sometimes a balistraria) is a narrow vertical aperture in a fortification through which an archer can launch arrows or a crossbowman can launch Crossbow bolt, bolts ...
s – in the basement dining rooms.
Components
Food court
A common feature of shopping malls is a food court: this typically consists of a number of
fast food
Fast food is a type of Mass production, mass-produced food designed for commercial resale, with a strong priority placed on speed of service. ''Fast food'' is a commercial term, limited to food sold in a restaurant or store with frozen, preheat ...
vendors of various types, surrounding a shared seating area.
Department stores
When the shopping mall format was developed by
Victor Gruen
Victor David Gruen, born Viktor David Grünbaum
retrieved 25 February 2012 (July 18, 1903 – February 1 ...
in the mid-1950s, signing larger department stores was necessary for the financial stability of the projects, and to draw retail traffic that would result in visits to the smaller stores in the mall as well. These larger stores are termed anchor stores or draw tenants. In physical configuration, anchor stores are normally located as far from each other as possible to maximize the amount of traffic from one anchor to another.
Regional differences
Europe
There are a reported 222 malls in Europe. In 2014, these malls had combined sales of US$12.47 billion.
This represented a 10% bump in revenues from the prior year.
U.K. and Ireland
In the United Kingdom and Ireland, both open-air and enclosed centers are commonly referred to as ''shopping centres''. ''Mall'' primarily refers to either a shopping mall – a place where a collection of
shops all adjoin a pedestrian area – or an exclusively pedestrianized street that allows shoppers to walk without interference from vehicle traffic.
The majority of British enclosed shopping centres, the equivalent of a U.S. mall, are located in city centres, usually found in old and historic shopping districts and surrounded by subsidiary open air shopping streets. Large examples include
Westquay
Westquay (formerly WestQuay) is a shopping centre in Southampton, England. It has an area of of retail and leisure space and contains around 130 shops, including major retailers such as John Lewis, Marks & Spencer, Zara, Schuh, Waterstones, ...
in
Southampton
Southampton is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and unitary authority in Hampshire, England. It is located approximately southwest of London, west of Portsmouth, and southeast of Salisbury. Southampton had a population of 253, ...
;
Manchester Arndale
Manchester Arndale is a large shopping centre in Manchester, England. It was constructed in phases between 1972 and 1979, at a cost of £100 million. Manchester Arndale is the largest of the chain of Arndale Centre, Arndale Centres built ac ...
;
Bullring Birmingham;
Liverpool One
Liverpool ONE is a shopping, residential, and leisure complex in Liverpool, England. The project involved the redevelopment of 42 acres (170,000 m2) of land in Liverpool City Centre, the city centre. It is a retail-led development anchored by ...
;
Trinity Leeds
Trinity Leeds is a shopping and leisure centre in the city centre of Leeds, England, named after the adjacent 18th-century Holy Trinity Church. Developed by Land Securities and designed by Chapman Taylor, it opened on 21 March 2013, with ove ...
; Buchanan Galleries in
Glasgow
Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom ...
;
St James Quarter
St James Quarter is a large galleria retail shopping centre and residential development in the centre of Edinburgh, Scotland. It is situated in the east end of the New Town, Edinburgh, New Town.
History
The site is built on the site of the St. J ...
in
Edinburgh
Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...
; and
Eldon Square in
Newcastle upon Tyne
Newcastle upon Tyne, or simply Newcastle ( , Received Pronunciation, RP: ), is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England. It is England's northernmost metropolitan borough, located o ...
. In addition to the inner city shopping centres, large UK
conurbation
A conurbation is a region consisting of a number of metropolises, cities, large towns, and other urban areas which, through population growth and physical expansion, have merged to form one continuous urban or industrially developed area. In most ...
s will also have large out-of-town "regional malls" such as the
Metrocentre
Metrocentre (previously styled as MetroCentre) is a shopping centre and entertainment complex in the Dunston area of Gateshead. It is located on the former site of Dunston Power Station, near to the River Tyne.
Metrocentre opened in stages, ...
in
Gateshead
Gateshead () is a town in the Gateshead Metropolitan Borough of Tyne and Wear, England. It is on the River Tyne's southern bank. The town's attractions include the twenty metre tall Angel of the North sculpture on the town's southern outskirts, ...
;
Meadowhall Centre
Meadowhall is an indoor shopping centre in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. It lies north-east of Sheffield city centre, and from Rotherham town centre. It is the largest shopping centre in Yorkshire, and currently the twelfth-largest in ...
,
Sheffield
Sheffield is a city in South Yorkshire, England, situated south of Leeds and east of Manchester. The city is the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire and some of its so ...
serving
South Yorkshire
South Yorkshire is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England. It borders North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire to the north, the East Riding of Yorkshire to the north-east, Lincolnshire ...
; the
Trafford Centre
The Trafford Centre is a large indoor shopping centre and entertainment complex in Trafford Park, Greater Manchester, England. It opened in 1998 and is third largest in the United Kingdom by retail space.
Originally developed by the Peel Grou ...
in
Greater Manchester
Greater Manchester is a ceremonial county in North West England. It borders Lancashire to the north, Derbyshire and West Yorkshire to the east, Cheshire to the south, and Merseyside to the west. Its largest settlement is the city of Manchester. ...
;
White Rose Centre
The White Rose Centre is a shopping centre in the Beeston area of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It spans two floors and is near the M621 motorway. It takes its name from the White Rose of York, the traditional symbol of Yorkshire. Mos ...
in
Leeds
Leeds is a city in West Yorkshire, England. It is the largest settlement in Yorkshire and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds Metropolitan Borough, which is the second most populous district in the United Kingdom. It is built aro ...
; the
Merry Hill Centre near
Dudley
Dudley ( , ) is a market town in the West Midlands, England, southeast of Wolverhampton and northwest of Birmingham. Historically part of Worcestershire, the town is the administrative centre of the Metropolitan Borough of Dudley. In the ...
; and
Bluewater Bluewater(s) or Blue Water(s) may refer to:
Maritime
* Blue water, the global deep oceans
*Blue Water 24, an American sailboat design
* Blue-water navy, a navy that can operate in deep waters of open oceans
* , a Panamanian tanker in service 1952- ...
in
Kent
Kent is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Essex across the Thames Estuary to the north, the Strait of Dover to the south-east, East Sussex to the south-west, Surrey to the west, and Gr ...
. These centres were built in the 1980s and 1990s, but planning regulations prohibit the construction of any more. Out-of-town shopping developments in the UK are now focused on
retail park
A retail park is a type of shopping centre found on the fringes of most large towns and cities in the United Kingdom and other European countries. Retail parks form a key aspect of European retail geographies, alongside indoor shopping centres, ...
s, which consist of groups of warehouse style shops with individual entrances from outdoors. Planning policy prioritizes the development of existing town centres, although with patchy success.
Westfield London
Westfield London is a large shopping centre in White City, west London, England, developed by the Westfield Group at a cost of £1.6bn,
on a brownfield site formerly the home of the 1908 Franco-British Exhibition. The site is bounded by the ...
(
White City) is the largest shopping centre in Europe.
Russia
In
Russia
Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...
, on the other hand, a large number of new malls had been built near major cities, notably the
MEGA malls such as Mega Belaya Dacha mall near
Moscow
Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...
. In large part they were financed by international investors and were popular with shoppers from the emerging middle class.
Management and legal issues
Shopping property management firms
A shopping
property management
Property management is the operation, control, maintenance, and oversight of real estate and physical property. This can include residential, commercial, and land real estate. Management indicates the need for real estate to be cared for and mon ...
firm is a company that specializes in owning and managing shopping malls. Most shopping property management firms own at least 20 malls. Some firms use a similar naming scheme for most of their malls; for example,
Mills Corporation
The Mills Corporation was a publicly traded real estate investment trust headquartered in Chevy Chase, Maryland, United States, acquired on April 3, 2007, by an investment group composed of Simon Property Group and Farallon Capital Management. ...
puts "Mills" in most of its mall names and
SM Prime Holdings
SM Prime Holdings, Inc. (SMPH) is a Filipino integrated property developer and a public subsidiary of SM Investments Corporation. It was incorporated on January 6, 1994, to develop, conduct, operate, and maintain the SM commercial shopping ce ...
of the
Philippines
The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...
puts "SM" in all of its malls, as well as anchor stores such as The SM Store, SM Appliance Center, SM Hypermarket, SM Cinema, and SM Supermarket. In the UK,
The Mall Fund
The Mall Fund owns and operates shopping centres in England using the trading name "The Mall Company". The shopping centres are usually branded and marketed as "The Mall".
The Mall Fund owned up to 10% of the covered retail space in the United ...
changes the name of any center it buys to ''"The Mall (location)"'', using its pink-M logo; when it sells a mall the center reverts to its own name and branding, such as
the Ashley Centre
The Ashley Centre (from 2005-2009 as The Mall Ashley) is a shopping centre, in Epsom, Surrey.
The Ashley Centre was opened on 24 October 1984 by Queen Elizabeth II as The Ashley Centre, a development combined of shops, a multi-storey car park, ...
in
Epsom
Epsom is a town in the borough of Epsom and Ewell in Surrey, England, about south of central London. The town is first recorded as ''Ebesham'' in the 10th century and its name probably derives from that of a Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain ...
.
Similarly, following its rebranding from Capital Shopping Centres,
intu Properties
Intu Properties plc was a British real estate investment trust (REIT), largely focused on shopping centre management and development. Originally named Transatlantic Insurance Holdings plc and later Liberty International plc, it changed its name ...
renamed many of its centres to ''"intu (name/location)"'' (such as
intu Lakeside); again, malls removed from the network revert to their own brand (see for instance
The Glades in Bromley).
Legal issues
One controversial aspect of malls has been their effective displacement of traditional
main streets or
high street
High Street is a common street name for the primary business street of a city, town, or village, especially in the United Kingdom and Commonwealth. It implies that it is the focal point for business, especially shopping. It is also a metonym fo ...
s. Some consumers prefer malls, with their parking garages, controlled environments, and private
security guard
A security guard (also known as a security inspector, security officer, factory guard, or protective agent) is a person employed by a government or private party to protect the employing party's assets (property, people, equipment, money, etc.) ...
s, over
central business district
A central business district (CBD) is the Commerce, commercial and business center of a city. It contains commercial space and offices, and in larger cities will often be described as a financial district. Geographically, it often coincides wit ...
s (CBD) or
downtown
''Downtown'' is a term primarily used in American and Canadian English to refer to a city's sometimes commercial, cultural and often the historical, political, and geographic heart. It is often synonymous with its central business district ( ...
s, which frequently have limited parking, poor maintenance, outdoor weather, and limited
police
The police are Law enforcement organization, a constituted body of Law enforcement officer, people empowered by a State (polity), state with the aim of Law enforcement, enforcing the law and protecting the Public order policing, public order ...
coverage.
In response, a few jurisdictions, notably
California
California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...
, have expanded the right of
freedom of speech
Freedom of speech is a principle that supports the freedom of an individual or a community to articulate their opinions and ideas without fear of retaliation, censorship, or legal sanction. The rights, right to freedom of expression has been r ...
to ensure that speakers will be able to reach consumers who prefer to shop, eat, and socialize within the boundaries of privately owned malls.
The Supreme Court decision ''
Pruneyard Shopping Center v. Robins'' was issued on 9 June 1980 which affirmed the decision of the California Supreme Court in a case that arose out of a free speech dispute between the Pruneyard Shopping Center in Campbell, California, and several local high school students.
World's largest malls
This is a list of the world's largest
shopping malls
A shopping mall (or simply mall) is a large indoor shopping center, usually anchored by department stores. The term ''mall'' originally meant a pedestrian promenade with shops along it, but in the late 1960s, it began to be used as a generi ...
based on their
gross leasable area
In architecture, construction, and real estate, floor area, floor space, or floorspace is the area (measured in square metres or square feet) taken up by a building or part of it. The ways of defining "floor area" depend on what factors of the bui ...
(GLA), with a GLA of at least .
Combination retail and wholesale shopping malls
Some wholesale market complexes also function as shopping malls in that they contain retail space which operate as stores in normal malls do but also act as producer vendor outlets that can take large orders for export.
See also
*
Arcade
Arcade most often refers to:
* Arcade game, a coin-operated video, pinball, electro-mechanical, redemption, etc., game
** Arcade video game, a coin-operated video game
** Arcade cabinet, housing which holds an arcade video game's hardware
** Arcad ...
*
Bazaar
A bazaar or souk is a marketplace consisting of multiple small Market stall, stalls or shops, especially in the Middle East, the Balkans, Central Asia, North Africa and South Asia. They are traditionally located in vaulted or covered streets th ...
*
List of largest shopping malls in the United States
This is a list of shopping malls in the United States and its territories that have at least of retail space ( gross leasable area). The list is based on the latest self-reported figures from the mall management websites, which are also report ...
*
Lists of shopping malls
This is a list of lists of shopping malls and shopping centers by country. A shopping mall is one or more buildings forming a complex of shops representing merchandisers, with interconnecting walkways enabling visitors to walk from unit to unit. ...
*
Mall kiosk
A retail kiosk (also referred to as a mall kiosk or retail merchandising unit (RMU)) is a store operated out of a merchant-supplied kiosk of varying size and shapes, which is typically enclosed with the operator located in the center and custome ...
*
Parade of shops
A shopping parade, also known as a parade of shops, suburban parade, neighbourhood parade, or just a simply a parade is a group of between five and 40 shops in one or more continuous rows, mostly being retail and serving a local customer base; in ...
*
Pedestrian zone
Pedestrian zones (also known as auto-free zones and car-free zones, as pedestrian precincts in British English, and as pedestrian malls in the United States and Australia) are areas of a city or town restricted to use by people on foot or ...
*
Retail#Types of retail outlets
References
Further reading
* Hardwick, M. Jeffrey (2004). ''Mall Maker: Victor Gruen, Architect of an American Dream''
Excerpt and text search
* Howard, Vicki (2015). ''From Main Street to Mall: The Rise and Fall of the American Department Store''.
*
*
* Ngo-Viet, Nam-Son (2002)
''The Integration of the Suburban Shopping Center with its Surroundings: Redmond Town Center'' PhD dissertation. University of Washington.
* Scharoun, Lisa (2012). ''America at the Mall: The Cultural Role of a Retail Utopia''. Jefferson, NC: McFarland.
External links
International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC)American Institute of Architects Retail and Entertainment Committee Knowledge Community
{{Authority control
Planned commercial developments
Retail buildings
Urban studies and planning terminology
Economy-related lists of superlatives
1980s fads and trends
1990s fads and trends
Architecture records
Articles containing video clips