The Best Shopping Mall In the Country (skyscrapers, raise, neighborhoods)
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I'm wonder how Woodfield Mall in Schaumburg stacks up to some of these listed? It's definitely an upper tier mall, but I'm not sure sure how it compares to the others. Even though I live in Chicago, I've not actually been inside the mall. I've passed by it several times though. Oak Brook is a pretty nice mall too, although Woodfield may be a slight tier above it in terms of size.
Having visited both Oak Brook Center and Woodfield Mall before, to me there's no doubt Woodfield is the premier mall in the Chicago area. That said, Oak Brook is still a pretty decent mall though. I do know a lot of retailers(at least the pickier ones that only have like 1 store per metro area overall) will opt to have that store at Woodfield, due to how VERY successful that mall is.
Someday I'd like to visit some of the most successful malls in other metros throughout the US, to see how they compare. I.e. Mall of America, King of Prussia, Tyson's Corner, Roosevelt Field, etc.
I would add why isn't Del Amo Fashion Center (Torrance, CA) on here? It's supposedly the biggest mall in the country
Scottsdale Fashion Square (Scottsdale, AZ) is quite an impressive mall as well
Del Amo had too many anchor shifts (like three of their anchors became Macy’s after several department store consolidations), a botched remodeling project that had half the mall looking modern and the other half looking stuck in the 1980s for awhile, - which was cool from a nostalgia standpoint, but not retail one. The addition of Nordstrom helps, but it’s also way too far from the freeways, especially for LA. It’s essentially become a neighborhood mall for that part of the South Bay. It also skews more middle class and doesn’t have a lot of luxury stores - People in Palos Verdes shop in their neighborhood mall instead of coming down to the flatlands with the hoi polloi if they can help it.
It was the largest mall in the country in the 80s after Del Amo Shopping Center and Del Amo Fashion Square were United via a bridge over Carson Blvd, but Mall of America and King of Prussia near Philly have surpassed it in size since then. Speaking of King of Prussia, it took the uniting two malls concept that Del Amo did years ago and upped it to the eleven. It has far more luxury retailers and department stores than Del Amo has (or ever did).
Having visited both Oak Brook Center and Woodfield Mall before, to me there's no doubt Woodfield is the premier mall in the Chicago area. That said, Oak Brook is still a pretty decent mall though. I do know a lot of retailers(at least the pickier ones that only have like 1 store per metro area overall) will opt to have that store at Woodfield, due to how VERY successful that mall is.
Someday I'd like to visit some of the most successful malls in other metros throughout the US, to see how they compare. I.e. Mall of America, King of Prussia, Tyson's Corner, Roosevelt Field, etc.
Yeah, even though I live in Chicago, I actually haven't been to Woodfield Mall in decades (when I visited family in Chicagoland). I have driven by Woodfield Mall a couple times but haven't been in, so it's hard for me to compare it to other malls. Woodfield Mall looks really nice and it has all of the major high-end stores and all common stores, so it is a very solid mall.
I'm originally from the DC area, so am very familiar with Tyson's and I've been to KOP a couple times (when living in Philly).
Woodfield is definitely not as big as KOP, and Tyson's Corner actually has 2 malls (which together, again, would be much bigger than Woodfield). So I would put it a tier below KOP, Tyson's, Mall of America, etc. It's in the next tier. I need to actually visit modern Woodfield Mall, as it's been way too long.
Yeah, even though I live in Chicago, I actually haven't been to Woodfield Mall in decades (when I visited family in Chicagoland). I have driven by Woodfield Mall a couple times but haven't been in, so it's hard for me to compare it to other malls. Woodfield Mall looks really nice and it has all of the major high-end stores and all common stores, so it is a very solid mall.
I'm originally from the DC area, so am very familiar with Tyson's and I've been to KOP a couple times (when living in Philly).
Woodfield is definitely not as big as KOP, and Tyson's Corner actually has 2 malls (which together, again, would be much bigger than Woodfield). So I would put it a tier below KOP, Tyson's, Mall of America, etc. It's in the next tier. I need to actually visit modern Woodfield Mall, as it's been way too long.
I last went to it in 2018(weirdly enough, since I was seeing a comedian at The Improv Comedy Club, which yes actually is slightly outside one of the entrances into Woodfield), and it's still a pretty nice mall to this day. A few small changes have occurred in recent years(i.e. the mall adding a food court in the Sears wing along with other mid-2010s renovations Simon did at that time, Lord and Taylor closing their anchor store, A&W Root Beer pulled out of their long time space a few years back), but I'd say that mall will be successful for a long time to come. Speaking of those mid-2010s renovations, I REALLY hated Simon removing those classic 70s elevators, since to me the new replacement elevators look more bland vs. the classic 70s Taubman designed elevators Woodfield used to have.
Thanks for comparing how big Woodfield is, vs. King of Prussia and Tyson's Corner. I didn't realize Woodfield was slightly smaller, vs. those 2 malls.
I voted South Coast Plaza. Just drove past it yesterday on the 405, still a sight to behold from the outside
It honestly reminded me of Garden State Plaza West. Or I guess you could say that GSP is South Coast Plaza East
My friend's family moved from Bergen County out to Orange County and I visited him back around '98 or so when I was in college and we went here.
The similar built environment in that immediate area with lots of retail, busy traffic everywhere, and jammed parking lot literally brought me right back home minus the Palm trees and a few other surrounding items.
But there are still some very high profile malls in the nation.
Which ones are the Top?
# High End Department Stores:
# High End Retailers:
Entertainment:
Largest:
Highest Sales:
Most diversified with retail:
The 6 Malls above are the highest grossing in terms of sales of indoor shopping malls in the nation from 2019 (Pre Covid).
I don't really understand the point of this thread since a lot of this is very quantitative data. Is everyone meant to compile this data themselves and then debate the best? But also, I think from a shopping experience, many of these malls are beyond outdated and dull.
I'd be much more interested in exploring which malls are doing the best job at adapting to a new consumer environment...things like creating "lifestyle centers", building on-site residential towers, retrofitting the space to have a traditional urban form, etc. instead of boxes surrounded by a sea of parking.
I really like the Grove in LA. UTC here in San Diego has done a good job remodeling. Maybe they don't have the highest sales per SF, but these are places I'd actually want to spend time out of enjoyment and not just the utility of consuming something. Even places like Las Vegas Town Square (which is a spruced up version of the boxes surrounded by parking) is a far superior experience to most of the above.
North park Center in Dallas is a really nice mall. Tons of high end stores (if that's your thing).
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