The term “shopping mall” is very common in our society, but what does it really stand for and what exactly represents a shopping mall in its detail. The urban land institute in Washington defines a shopping centers as something which is usually planned by one single company or an organization, then private owners rent the different shops to a larger numbers of retail and service companies. The central management takes care of everything else that concerns the shopping mall like advertising, PR or joint services. In addition to that the location and size of the mall as well as the quantity and the type of shops are in a balanced ratio to the surrounding area with car parks close by. Furthermore some essential features of shopping malls which are interesting to know are for example the fact that the ground the mall is built on and the mall building need to be owned by one person or company. Moreover retail stores and service companies form one well-balanced unit, which aims for a seamless coverage of the average consumer needs in the specific area. However, the general concept of the mall doesn’t only correspond to consumer's needs, but also has to allow single shops a rational management. This requires a good plan of the buildings and car parks as well as an analysis of the market and retail structure as Thomas Gasser describes in his book.







 
 

Originally shopping malls were meant to be strictly commercial merchandise markets, the only intention they used to have was the purchase of different items. At first they only consisted of a main supermarket and a few stores and in order to promote the non-grocery stores an actor was added at the other end. This was usually a variety or department store. Edgar Lion writes in his book that throughout the 20th century most of the shopping malls grew and provided more than one fashion or show store and thereby drastically changed their image. Therefore it’s very important to have a specific look at the history of American malls and different examples so we can observe the gradual changes which happened over time. The first shopping center creation was built by the Roland Park Company in Baltimore in 1907. Not even 20 years later J.C. Nichols opened the first “real” shopping center in Kansas City. In 1924 H.Potter then built the River Oaks Center in Houston which had modern architectural features. In the 30s H. Prahler was the first to ever open a shopping mall where all of the stores were directed to one central place.

 

In the 50’s shopping centers were shooting from the earth like trees and over time they only multiplied. In 1957 there were 2,500 shopping centers in the US and Canada, in 1967 there were 11000, in 1970 there were 14000 and in 1973 there were 17000. In addition to that, in the early 70s malls were being opened at  rate of 1000 per year. Thomas Gasser says that a potential reason for the boom of shopping malls after 1950 could be the growth of population considering that between 1950 to 1955 the population in the suburbans grew from 9.6 million to 44.3 million. Some other explanations could also be the increase in cars, higher spending, change in retail and sinking detail sales in cities.

 

Matthew Newton writes that by the mid 70s the "mall culture" began to form. Filmmaker George A. Romero who filmed the movie “Dawn of the Dead” at Monroeville Mall in Pennsylvania remembers this time as “the beginning of that mall culture when you went there and you hung out all day”. He also describes malls as ritualistic, unnatural experiences with hypnotic music and no realness that really did turn people into zombies just like in his film. At that time shopping was seen as a community activity and malls were a place to meet at.

 

Matthew Newton describes the 80s with the term “mall madness” which seems to be a perfect fit for his period. During the 80s malls were a pop culture phenomenon and being a “mallrat” as a teenager was something you wanted to be. Shopping malls were a major hangout place for teenagers and were describes as an “establishes social system of ritual and reward”. By the mid to late 80s malls had become a multifunctional place, they became a delivery system for prepackaged culture and also a place of entertainment. For example teen pop idol Tiffany did a mall tour in 1987 called “The beautiful you: Celebrating the good life shopping mall tour ’87”.

 

Surprisingly this national fascination with malls came to an abrupt end by the lates 90s to mid 2000s because people “just stopped going there”. As a result many malls became ghost malls and were later on demolished. Today shopping malls are no longer a cultural phenomenon, but more of a cultural artifact. This was mostly caused through the Internet and online shopping which decentralized the whole industry and in order to become popular again malls need to change.