Interesting facts about shopping malls you may not know

Shopping malls today have probably changed a lot from the shopping malls where you bought your school clothes back in the day. Of course, you can still shop there, even watch movies and participate in many other interesting activities. Have you ever wondered what shopping malls were like in the past and how much do you know about them? Let's find out some interesting facts about shopping malls that few people know !

Why Shopping Malls Are More Than Just Stores

The addition of various entertainment, dining, and residential options has helped fill the void left after many classic malls closed some stores (JCPenney, Macy's, and Sears...) or went bankrupt entirely (like Lord & Taylor and Montgomery Ward). Before the recent redevelopment of malls, many were vacant, known as ghost malls.

The 1980s were the heyday of shopping malls.

There are about 2,500 of these indoor shopping malls across the United States. Now that consumer habits have changed and one-click shopping makes it easy to have groceries delivered to your door, only about 700 remain open nationwide.

The world's first shopping mall was the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II in Milan, Italy.

Designed by renowned architect Guiseppe Mengoni in 1877 and still standing today, the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II is known as Milan's living room. Its lavish architecture and covered porches invite leisurely strolls. "I would like to live there forever," Mark Twain wrote in A Tramp Abroad.

The first modern shopping mall in the United States was the Southdale Center.

The mall opened in Edina, Minnesota in 1956 and is still open today. The mall is just a few miles from the largest mall in the country, the Mall of America in Bloomington. With 520 stores, more than 50 restaurants, two hotels, two miniature golf courses, a zip line, an aquarium, and an amusement park, the Mall of America is a vacation destination. Since opening in 1992, it has welcomed 400 million visitors from all over the world each year.

The 3.1 million square foot Mall of America is not the world's largest shopping mall.

That spot belongs to Iran Mall in Tehran, which is nearly four times the size and includes a library, a concert hall and a mosque, among other amenities. When it first opened in 2018, the Iranian giant stole the trophy from the New South China Mall in Dongguan, China. Designed to attract wealthy shoppers, with high-end stores and a gondola-lined canal, the Chinese megamall was relatively deserted for years because most people couldn't afford to shop there. After being redesigned with more middle-class offerings, the formerly ghost mall is finally coming back to life.

Some shopping malls reflect their surroundings in creative ways.

Sawgrass Mills in Sunrise, Florida, for example, is shaped like an alligator. Baltimore’s Power Plant repurposed an old brick power plant near the city’s industrial harbor. And Flatiron Crossing in Broomfield, Colorado, features rugged, rocky architecture and is surrounded by long walking trails.

All successful shopping malls have the “cheesecake element”—that is, the presence of a Cheesecake Factory.

The popular eatery, with its extensive menu that includes more than 30 flavors of its namesake dessert, is a big draw for people to the mall, according to a report from Moody's Analytics. Another big draw is the Apple Store. As Moody's Matt Reidy explained, “People go to the mall to go to Apple. They don't go to the mall and end up at Apple.”