Did America popularise malls and hanging out at the mall culture?
Posted by Zurachi13@reddit | AskAnAmerican | View on Reddit | 37 comments
I thought about this the other day, I'm a teen I hang out with my friends at the mall did the US popularised this back in the 80's and 90's? where not just teens would just shop,walk and just hang around at their nearest or most recently opened mall
samandtham@reddit
Absolutely. And it's thanks to the ubiquity of American media.
neoprenewedgie@reddit
I am proud to say that my mall, Rockaway Townsquare in New Jersey, had the first 12-screen multiplex in America. (At least that's what Wikipedia says.) I spent many, many hours there.
huazzy@reddit
I believe the Cherry Hill Mall is also the first enclosed mall in America. Or so I read somewhere.
IndependentMemory215@reddit
First one east of the Mississippi River.
The first enclosed mall was the Southdale Shopping Center 5 years earlier in Edina, Minnesota. It’s still open today.
Funny enough, it is only about 6 miles west of the Mississippi River!
Cooldude_15@reddit
Southdale was actually the first regionally sized enclosed mall. The first ever enclosed mall was Valley Fair shopping center in Appleton, Wisconsin, which opened a year before Southdale
IndependentMemory215@reddit
A lot of malls claim to be the first enclosed mall. But Southdale is widely regarded as the first modern mall in the US.
The Providence In Rhode Island beats Valley Fair by over 100 years. The Cleveland Arcade opened in 1890 too.
But Southdale opened as a complete enclosed, climate controlled mall. It had 72 stores, 800,000 sq ft and 5,200 parking spots.
Nothing before that compared. Valley Fair mall opened with 6 stores.
itsthekumar@reddit
I wonder if NJ is the king of malls.
neoprenewedgie@reddit
Growing up in NJ in the 70s and 80s, I was VERY excited to visit the famous Galleria mall on a vacation to Los Angeles. (This was back when it was still a traditional mall.) I got there and thought "what is this crap?" Very small by Jersey standards and was just all around lame.
Zurachi13@reddit (OP)
what is this traditional mall you speak off? could you describe it for me
neoprenewedgie@reddit
Just throwing things out off the top of my head:
A traditional mall is indoors. Once you're inside, you can walk from store to store in air-conditioned comfort. The mall probably has 2 or 3 floors with open atriums throughout the mall. (Meaning, from the 2nd floor you can look down at the ground floor.) A small mall might have 50-100 stores; a large mall will have several hundred stores.
There are "anchor" stores (Sears, Macys, Bloomingdales), which are large department stores typically at the far ends of the mall. There may be decent restaurants in the mall, but there is also often a Food Court that has many fast food places to eat. These places just have counter service and they all share tables in the middle.
Zurachi13@reddit (OP)
traditional malls sounds like most malls in random locations around the world how was it different with the new jersey mall you spoke of?
neoprenewedgie@reddit
"Traditional" does not mean rare. There are still tons of them out there. New Jersey opened an insane "traditional" mall a few years ago called American Dream. It has over 400 stores, a 200-foot ferris wheel and an indoor ski slope.
But some traditional malls (like the Galleria in Los Angeles) have been renovated to be an indoor-outdoor experience. You walk along outdoor pathways and plazas to go from store to store. Obviously these work better in warm climates.
There was nothing specifically special about "my" mall. I no longer live in New Jersey but I visited it a few years ago and it was just soulless. The magic came from the times, where you would see packs of teens wandering around together - without phones. For younger kids, it was a taste of independence - your parents would let you wander off on your own at age 11 or 12 and that was a big deal. I would assume today's 11-12 year olds would prefer to stay home.
TheBimpo@reddit
They occurred simultaneously in other countries as well, but they came to be associated with American culture due to media.
SevenSixOne@reddit
And also because most of America doesn't have many walkable "town square" areas for shopping and hanging out, so the mall became the default hangout spot for a lot of suburban teens.
...but also: I was a suburban teen in the late 90s/early 2000s and malls were dying even then; I can't imagine most modern teens spend much time at malls, or that there are even many malls still around where they COULD go.
TheUnnamedPerson@reddit
Not too unpopular nowadays. I know for my high school Del Amo Mall in Torrance was a popular spot (although probably has partly to do with it being probably The Largest in at least Southern LA County)
TheBimpo@reddit
Yup. Also, much of our population explosion occurred in suburban areas post WW2 and lots of it in northern areas where the novelty of being able to shop indoors in comfort was an amazing new convenience.
Total_Math_752@reddit
lol I’m not sure but I am going to the mall today with friends 😂 ironic
ElectricTomatoMan@reddit
70's
Bargle-Nawdle-Zouss@reddit
Watch the movie Fast Times At Ridgemont High (1982) for an example on how hanging out at large indoor shopping malls was already very well ingrained in US youth culture by the early 1980s. As a Gen Xer, I remember this scene all too well.
Potential_Dentist_90@reddit
It was and is also common for teenagers to work retail/fast food. I worked at the local supermarket, as did a lot of my classmates.
Zurachi13@reddit (OP)
all this talk about malls and it originating in the US made me realise Dubai with it's super huge mega complex type of malls don't exist in the US and to me that's crazy
cthulhu_on_my_lawn@reddit
Not sure the size of the Dubai malls, I know the scale of a lot of stuff is crazy there, but there are a few mega malls, like Mall of America in Minneapolis and American Dream Mall in New Jersey that have like... amusement parks, water parks, hotels.
huazzy@reddit
They absolutely do, the scale of the Dubai Mall is just greater.
Bear_necessities96@reddit
Ya
spitfire451@reddit
Shopping malls were invented in America, so I'd say yes.
neoprenewedgie@reddit
"The world's first shopping mall is believed to be Trajan's Market in Rome, Italy, which was built between 100–112 AD."
(I know, I know... not the same thing.)
ToastMate2000@reddit
Maybe? It was definitely a thing back in the 80s and 90s. Probably not so much today since there is social media and internet and streaming entertainment and online shopping in everyone's hands. Back then you went to the mall to go to the arcade, the cinema, the bookstores, music stores, and buy your clothes and various stuff, because you couldn't do any of that online. Plus it was a place you could roam around out of the weather (whether too hot or cold or wet or dark outside), fairly safely with security and everything. And since all the other kids did the same thing, there was a good chance of seeing people you knew there, so it could be a social scene as well.
WashuOtaku@reddit
I believe teens portrayed hanging out at the mall was just the era of its time is all. Depending on the movie, there is no real plot of teens being at the mall hanging out, it was just a known location that teens do. Which I feel bad for directors trying to make modern teens hangout as it appears unnatural now as its more common to hang at home online.
KoalaGrunt0311@reddit
Hanging out for my 8 year old is playing Minecraft with her friend next to her and being able to see each other directly rather than doing the exact same thing in their own rooms.
Soundwave-1976@reddit
Yea, but it wasn't just "the mall" the record store and arcade were there. Video games at home were not as good many times as the quarter ones. I used to go in the late 80' and spend a whole afternoon in the arcade on 5.00.
Zurachi13@reddit (OP)
5$ including lunch too? just curious
Soundwave-1976@reddit
I was a kid, that's was money away from a video games. Na pizza was like 1.25 a slice or so as I remember it.
accountingforlove83@reddit
I believe it started with a Canadian pop sensation named Robin Sparkles.
Current_Poster@reddit
I suppose. I mean, if you want to say that loitering around a souk or bazaar or agora or Royal Arcade 'counts', that's possible. But the shopping mall was invented in the US, so... yeah,
2spicy_4you@reddit
That’s gone bro don’t worry about it anymore
bdrwr@reddit
Malls have been slowly dying off since the 2000s. The whole "mallrat teen" subculture depended on a strong middle class with busy parents and disposable income for the kids to throw around. The middle class has been shrinking over the same time period, and there's not nearly as much money going around for children to have some. Plus, inflation and wage stagnation means that even when kids DO have some money from mom and dad, it buys much less than it used to.
Then throw on top of that the rose of the internet, video games, streaming, social media, smartphones, etc, and staying at home isn't nearly as boring as it used to be.
There definitely still are malls around. The ones in big cities are usually doing better. But all over the country there are sad looking skeletons of malls with half the storefronts unoccupied, or even completely defunct.
Necessary-Sleep-3578@reddit
I feel like you’re answering a different question