Shopping mall
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
- For the traditional meaning of the word mall, see mall.
A shopping mall (or simply mall), shopping centre or shopping arcade is a building or set of buildings that contain stores and have interconnecting walkways that make it easy for people to walk from store to store. The walkways might be enclosed. In the United Kingdom and Australia these are called shopping centres or shopping arcades. In North America the term mall is preferred.
Strip malls are a recent development, corresponding to the rise of the suburbs after World War II in the United States. As such, the strip mall development has been the subject of the same criticisms leveled against suburbanization and suburban sprawl in general. In the United Kingdom these are called "retail parks" or "out of town shopping centres".
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History
Indoor shopping is not a recent innovation. Isfahan's Grand Bazaar, which is largely covered, dates from the 10th century A.D. The 10 kilometer long covered Tehran's Grand Bazaar also has a very old history. The Burlington Arcade in London was opened in 1819. The Arcade in Providence, Rhode Island introduced the concept to the United States in 1828. The larger Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II in Milan, Italy followed in the 1860s and is closer to large modern malls in spaciousness. Many other large cities created malls in the late 19th century and early 20th century along similar lines, one of the best examples being the Cleveland Arcade.
In the late 20th century, with the rise of the suburb and automobile culture in the United States, a new form of mall was created away from city centers. It is said that the design is modeled originally after the inner city shopping district of Vienna, the concept was created by the Austrian migrant and architect Victor Gruen. This new generation of mall was pioneered by Northgate where Gruen realised his concept for the first time, located in north Seattle, USA, in 1950; Northland Shopping Center, built near Detroit, USA in 1954; and Victor Gruen's Southdale Center, located in the Twin Cities suburb of Edina, Minnesota, USA, in 1956. In the UK, Chrisp Street Market was the first pedestrian shopping area built with a road at the shop fronts.
A very large shopping mall is sometimes called a megamall. The title of the largest enclosed shopping mall was held by the West Edmonton Mall in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada for 20 years. One of the world's largest shopping complex at one location is the two-mall agglomeration of the Plaza at King of Prussia and the Court at King of Prussia in the Philadelphia suburb of King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, USA. The most visited shopping mall in the world and largest mall in the United States is the Mall of America, located near the Twin Cities in Bloomington, Minnesota, USA. However, several Asian malls are advertised as having more visitors, including Berjaya Times Square.
The race is on to build the largest mall. Beijing's Golden Resources Shopping Mall, opened in October 2004, is the world's largest, at 6 million square feet (600,000 m²). The Mall of Arabia inside Dubai Land in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, which will open in 2006, will become the largest mall in the world. Both might be smaller than Berjaya Times Square which is advertised at 7 million square feet.
Mall can refer to a shopping mall, which is a place where a collection of shops all adjoin a pedestrian area, or an exclusively pedestrian street, that allows shoppers to walk without interference from vehicle traffic. Mall is generally used in North America and Australasia to refer to large shopping areas, while the term arcade is more often used, especially in Britain, to refer to a narrow pedestrian-only street, often covered or between closely spaced buildings. A larger, often only partly covered but exclusively pedestrian shopping area is in Britain also termed a shopping precinct or pedestrian precinct. The majority of British shopping centers are in town centers, usually inserted into old shopping districts, and surrounding by subsidiary open air shopping streets. A number of large out of town "regional malls" such as Meadowhall were built in the 1980s and 1990s, but there are only ten of them or so and current planning regulations prohibit the construction of any more. Out of town shopping developments in the UK are now focused on retail parks, which consist of groups of warehouse style shops with individual entrances from outdoors. Planning policy prioritizes the development of existing town centers, although with patchy success.
Regional mall
A regional mall is a shopping mall which is designed to service a larger area than a conventional shopping mall. As such, it is typically larger, and offers a wider selection of stores. Given its wider service area, these malls tend to have higher-end stores that need a larger area in order for their services to be profitable.
Regional malls are also found as tourist attractions in vacation areas.
Super-regional malls are usually shopping centers with over 1 million square feet of retail space and serves as the dominant shopping venue for the region that it serves.
Strip mall
A strip mall is a shopping center where the stores are arranged in a row, with a sidewalk in front. Strip malls are typically developed as a unit and have large parking lots in front. They face major traffic arterials and tend to be self-contained with few pedestrian connections to surrounding neighborhoods.
In the U.S., strip malls usually come in two sizes. The smaller variety is more common, and often located at the intersection of major streets in residential areas; they cater to a small residential area. This type of strip mall is found in nearly every city or town in the U.S. They are service-oriented and will often contain a grocery store, video rental store, dry cleaner, small restaurant, and other similar stores. In the past, pharmacies were often located next to the grocery stores, but, now, the drug store is often free-standing in the parking lot. Sometimes, gas stations, banks, and other businesses will also have their own free-standing buildings in the parking lot of the strip center.
The other variety of strip mall in the U.S. has large, big box retailers as the anchors, such as Wal-Mart or Target. They are sometimes referred to as power centers, in the real estate development industry, because they attract and cater to residents of an entire population area. The type of retailers may vary widely--from electronics to bookstores to home improvement stores. There are typically only a few of these type of strip malls in a city, compared to the grocery store-anchored strip mall. Some of these strip centers may only have three of four of these large retailers in them, while others may have a dozen or more major retailers.
Some strip malls are a hybrid of both of these types.
Strip malls vary widely in architecture. Older strip malls tend to have plain architecture with the stores arranged in a straight row; in some cases there are vacant stores. Newer strip malls are often built with elaborate architecture to blend in with the neighborhood or be more attractive. In some cases, strips malls are broken up into smaller buildings to encourage walking. Sometimes the buildings will wrap around the parking lot to hide the parking from the road or residential areas.
Dead malls
In the U.S, in recent times, as more modern facilities are built, many early malls have become largely abandoned, due to decreased traffic and tenancy. These deteriorating "dead malls" have failed to attract new business and often sit unused for many years until restored or demolished. Interesting examples of architecture and urban design, these structures often attract people who explore and photograph them. Until the mid-1990s, the trend was to build enclosed malls and to renovate older outdoor malls into enclosed ones. Such malls had advantages such as temperature control. Since then, the trend has turned. It is once again fashionable to build open-air malls, and some enclosed malls have been opened up, such as the Sherman Oaks Galleria. In parts of Canada, it is now rare for new shopping malls to be built, as outdoor outlet malls or big box shopping areas known as power centres are now favored, although the traditional enclosed shopping mall is still favored by those seeking weather-protected, all-under-one-roof shopping.
Legal issues
One controversial aspect of malls has been their effective displacement of traditional main streets. Many consumers prefer malls, with their spacious parking garages, well-maintained walkways, and private security guards, over public streets, which often suffer from limited parking, poor maintenance, and limited police coverage.
In response, a few jurisdictions, notably California, have expanded the right of freedom of speech to ensure that speakers will be able to reach consumers who prefer to shop within the boundaries of privately owned malls. See Pruneyard Shopping Center.
See also
- List of shopping malls
- Victor Gruen - Considered the father of modern shopping malls
- James Rouse - Community planner
Types of Shopping Facilities
Components of Shopping Facilities
Shopping Property Management Firms
- Premium outlet
- The Westfield Group - an Australian-owned company with international locations
- General Growth Properties
