Malls

Climate-controlled malls, like the Mall of America in Minnesota (MOA), allow customers to shop in comfort despite inhospitable weather. MOA also features a theme park, movie theaters, video arcades, wedding chapels, and even a public aquarium.

A shopping mall refers to a diverse collection of retail stores that is arranged on one or more levels and is typically augmented by one or more anchor stores, food and dining establishments, and entertainment venues. Malls may be open air or enclosed. Dating from 900 to 700 B.C.E., the Greek agora helped establish the idea of publicly presenting goods on rugs spread on the ground. In the 1st to 5th centuries C.E., Rome was the site of the first covered shopping space—an innovation that allowed shoppers to be protected from the elements. Medieval market halls and town halls (11–16th centuries) were examples of shops appearing in buildings designed for other uses, while the Eastern bazaars, including the Great Bazaar at Istanbul (1461), were revolutionary as [Page 496]districts within cities. The first walk-in shops with internal counters were established in Holland in 1695. In 1830, the Galerie de Orlean was the first arcade in Paris and featured an enclosed covered way to protect shoppers. In 1840, the invention of plate glass facilitated the development of shop fronts to showcase goods. In 1888, New Trade Halls opened in Moscow; it featured three arcade areas that allowed for up to 1,000 shopping units. The key factors in these early phases of the evolution of the shopping mall are the connection of the shops and the city, the inherent civic nature, the uses of technology, and the idea of an admixture of different types of shops.

At the end of the 19th century, the chain store was invented. Especially in the 21st century, chain stores often make up the majority of shops in malls. Similarly, the evolution of the supermarket would also lead to many of the traditions found in the shopping mall. In the 20th-century United States, cities were beset with population growth, congestion, and intense traffic; coupled with these facts were new technological developments in lighting and ventilation. These conditions were ripe for the first shopping mall—socialist Victor Gruen's South-dale (Edina, Minnesota, 1956).

Spanning 1 million square feet (sq ft) of shopping space, Southdale was revolutionary in that it was a fully enclosed shopping space. The use of climate control in the mall allowed customers to shop year-round in Minnesota's often inhospitable weather. In Victor Gruen's mind, Southdale would have become a master planned space including housing, hospitals, parks, and lakes among other features—essentially, an artificial, enclosed downtown. As the U.S. highway system developed in the years following Southdale, the shopping mall continued to emerge and eventually became an archetype repeated throughout the world.