Shopping mall

This article is about large, usually enclosed, shopping centers anchored by traditional department stores. For an overview of all types of shopping centers, see Shopping center. For pedestrian malls, see Pedestrian zone.

The Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota, the largest mall in the United States
The West Edmonton Mall in Edmonton, Alberta, the largest mall in Canada
The interior of Garden State Plaza megamall in Paramus, Bergen County, New Jersey, the borough with the world's highest concentration of shopping malls.
The Iran Mall, the world's largest mall in Iran.

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 generic term for the large enclosed shopping centers that were becoming increasingly commonplace.[1][2] In the United Kingdom and other countries, shopping malls may be called shopping centres.

In recent decades, malls have declined considerably in North America, particularly in subprime locations, and some have closed and become so-called "dead malls".[3] Successful exceptions have added entertainment and experiential features, added big-box stores as anchors, or converted to other specialized shopping center formats such as power centers, lifestyle centers, factory outlet centers, and festival marketplaces.[4] In Canada, shopping centres have frequently been replaced with mixed-use high-rise communities.[5] In many European countries and Asian countries, shopping malls continue to grow and thrive.[6]

  1. ^ Longstreth, Richard (1997). City Center to Regional Mall. MIT Press. pp. 296–304. ISBN 0262122006. "the essential framework for the regional mall", and other references in this page range and elsewhere to malls as a type of shopping center
  2. ^ Rielly, Edward J. (2003). The 1960s. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. p. 62. ISBN 0-313-31261-3. Retrieved 28 July 2020.
  3. ^ "American Malls That Have Fallen Into Ruin". GOBankingRates. 10 June 2019. Retrieved 4 May 2022.
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference ICSC Characteristics was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ "Mixed use becomes crucial for big retail projects". Victoria Times Colonist. 6 March 2020. Retrieved 8 April 2022.
  6. ^ "Research: Shopping Centres Continue To Dominate European Retail Space, But Significant Variations Exist Between Countries". European Council of Shopping Places. 11 April 2023.