Shopping Malls

A shopping mall is a building or group of buildings that contains stores. The stores are connected by walkways so that consumers can easily walk between the stores. Malls can be built in an enclosed or open-air format. These malls have brought a new revolution in the world of shopping. Nowadays shopping is no longer limited to buying stuff that you require but now it has extended its sense to have lip smacking food along with enjoyment, fun, refreshment and entertainment. In malls all these things are easily available in a completely comfortable environment. Shopping malls are an emerging trend in the global arena.

The first thing that comes in our mind about the shopping malls is that it is a big enclosed building housing a variety of shops or products. Shopping was no longer limited to a mere buying activity – it has become synonymous with splurging time and money. People simply go about roaming through the shopping mall in order to peep through the window of the shop and often ending up buying something they like. The consumers desire a combination of comfort and suitability which the shopping malls cater to, and so this format of shopping has become so popular all over the world, and especially so in India.

The inclusion of amenities like restaurants, multiplexes, and car parks attract more and more crowd to shopping malls that are considered family hangout zones. The concept of departmental stores came up in the 19th century with the Industrial Revolution. Consumers wanted a better shopping experience and this demand gave rise to the emergence of shopping malls in India. Originally the first of the shopping malls was opened in Paris. Then the trend followed in the other metros over the world, and there was a spree of shopping malls coming up at various places.

In this age of mass production and mass consumption, the concepts of shopping malls are most modern method of attracting consumers. The concept of Shopping was altered completely with the emergence of these shopping malls. The Grand Bazaar in Istanbul is an early shopping mall dating from the 15th century. In 1819, London opened a shopping center called the Burlington Arcade. Milan, Italy built a shopping center in the 1860s called the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II. In the United States, people began moving to the suburbs during the 20th century.

Shopping malls were built to serve consumers living in areas outside of the cities. By 1916, one called The Market Square, which was made up of 28 stores, apartments, and offices, opened for business in Chicago, IL. The facility was located in the expensive Lake Forest suburb and is thought to be one of the first planned shopping centers in the U. S. In 1950, the Northgate Shopping Center was built in Seattle, Washington. This mall boasted two rows of stores on each side of an open-air section where shoppers could walk.

Two department stores anchored each end of the shopping center. The first enclosed mall was Southdale Center in Edina, Minnesota, which opened its doors in 1956. Up until the mid 1990s, most modern-day developers built enclosed shopping malls in order to create a climate-controlled shopping environment, but more developers are returning to the creation of open-air malls. Outlet malls, shopping centers featuring name brand retailers selling their products at discounted prices, are often built in an open-air format.