A shopping mall (or simply mall) is a North American term for a large indoor shopping center, usually anchored by department stores. There are two main types of shopping malls, super regional malls and regional malls.
A super-regional mall is a shopping mall with a size of over 800,000 sq ft, three or more anchors, mass merchant, more variety, fashion apparel, and serves as the dominant shopping venue for the region (25 miles or 40 km) in which it is located.
A regional mall is a shopping mall with a size of 400,000 sq ft to 800,000 sq ft and at least two anchor stores.
The other malls include strip malls and outlet malls. A strip mall is strictly sub urban and usually consist of large parking lots surrounded by single story shops, and an Outlet mall is a special shopping mall where manufacturers sell
their products directly through their own stores.
Southdale Center, a shopping mall located in Edina, Minnesota, opened in 1956 and is both the first and the oldest fully enclosed, climate-controlled large-scale shopping mall,
with nearly 75 shops filling two levels of retail space, in the United States. Today, Southdale Center has 1,297,608 square feet of leasable retail space, and contains 106 retail tenants.
The mall is owned by Simon Property Group and the anchor stores are Macy's,
Dave & Buster's, AMC Theatres, Hennepin Service Center, and
Life Time Athletic.
One of the first department stores in the world was Bennett's in Derby, first established as an ironmonger
(hardware store) in 1734; and it still stands today, trading in the same building. However, the first reliably dated department store to be established, was Harding, Howell & Co., which opened in 1796 on
Pall Mall, London.
A department store is a retail establishment offering a wide range of consumer goods in different areas of the store, each area ("department")
specializing in a product category. Arnold Constable was the first American department store; it was founded in 1825 as a small dry goods store on Pine Street in New York City.
David Jones was the first department store opened in Australia on 24 May 1838, by Welsh born immigrant David Jones in Sydney,
New South Wales; it's the oldest continuously operating department franchise in the world.
Statically, in 2021, around 2.14 billion people worldwide purchased goods online with ecommerce sales at estimated $4.891 trillion;
63% of shoppers bought goods online, and around half of these consumers shopped more on mobile. Online marketplace sites operated by Alibaba, Amazon, and eBay accounted for more than 50% of global web sales.
Chinese platform Taobao was the biggest online marketplace with a online sale of $515 billion while Tmall and Amazon ranked second and third with annual $432 and $344 billion sales, respectively.
The largest mall in the world by total area is The Dubai Mall, which has 1,200 shops at its
over 13 million square foot of space (equivalent in size to more than 50 football fields). It is the most visited building on the planet, attracting around 54 million visitors annually.
From its origins in the fur trade, the Hudson's Bay Company is the oldest corporation in North America and was the largest department store operator in Canada until around mid-1980s.
The major department stores in the United States are J. C. Penney and Sears.
J. C. Penney had four stores in 1908, 312 in 1920, and 1452 in 1930. Sears, a giant mail-order house, opened its first eight retail stores in 1925, and operated 338 by 1930, and 595 by 1940
Italy's most famous department stores are Coin, established in Mirano, Venice in 1926 and
La Rinascente, founded in Milan in 1865 by Luigi and Ferdinando Bocconi.
- As a leading American retailer with one of the 100 largest corporate workforces in the world. Federated
Department Stores owns Macy's and
Bloomingdale's.
- One of the world's largest specialty retailers
with three of the most recognized and respected brands in the apparel
industry — Gap, Banana Republic and
Old Navy.
- One of the most widely recognized
brands in the world. The Company designs and markets a leading lifestyle collection
of casual apparel and accessories for women, men, children, and babies.
- Headquartered in Freeport, Maine, L.L. Bean operates a
worldwide catalog business, an award-winning Web site and Retail Stores and Factory Stores throughout
the U.S. East Coast.
- One of well-known
fashion stores that designs and markets an extensive range of women's
and men's fashion apparel and accessories appropriate to wearing occasions
ranging from casual to dressy.
- A leader in the design, marketing
and distribution of premium lifestyle products including apparel, home accessories,
and fragrances, in both the U.S. and international markets.
- As a general merchandise retailer, Target provides value
to American consumers through multiple retail formats ranging from upscale discount and moderate-priced,
to full-scale department stores. It also owns Marshall Field's and Mervyn's, and each has its own
distinct brand.
