Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I prefer outdoor because i live in California, so why not take advantage of the perfect weather. Even if i didn't live in CA, i'd still prefer outdoors because it's more interactive with the surrounding environment, rather than being trapped in a giant shoe box-like indoor mall.
Agreed on all counts. I am not a shopper, but I can enjoy being at an outdoor mall. There are usually fountains, often views, always fresh air, and plenty of places to sit and relax.
I don't like the smell, sound, or artificial light of the indoor malls, and it always seems to be extremely hard to find a place to sit down. I don't know why they provide so little seating. Got to keep you moving from store to store, I guess.
Of course, there are only about two days per year when it's not pleasant to be outside here, so that contributes a lot to my opinion as well.
I prefer outdoor because i live in California, so why not take advantage of the perfect weather. Even if i didn't live in CA, i'd still prefer outdoors because it's more interactive with the surrounding enviornment, rather than being trapped in a giant shoe box-like indoor mall.
Take a look at The Houston Galleria. It might just be the biggest indoor mall in the world, yet i doesn't appeal to me at all because they all tend to look the same on the interior. I love shopping in Palm Springs because of the soaring mountains infront of you.
The Houston Galleria is not even close to being the largest mall in the U.S., let alone the world..
I love shopping anywhere but prefer indoor. It is less impacted by the weather, like rain, thunder, hail, or heat. I don't mind exercising on rain or heat but I despise shopping in it.
Outdoor malls make absolutely NO sense in places like KC where for six months of the year, it's either uncomfortably hot OR cold, and four of the remaining six months are rainy. We only get two months of pleasant weather to truly enjoy our outdoor malls.
Outdoor malls also fail miserably at recreating the urban experience they try to mimic. No, thanks. Bring back the indoor malls, please....
Either way those anchor malls are declining like crazy and for a good reason. It's all convienence. Why would you waste driving, using gas, and drive to a mall hoping you'll find something you like rather than do it on a computer? Online shopping is becoming dominate. I prefer that instead of seeing more retail businesses and malls filling up more space in our towns/cities.
Chicago has only two major outdoor malls left....Old Orchard in the north suburbs (Skokie) and Oakbrook in the west suburbs (Oak Brook)....both are easily among the most popular in the area and provide the most pleasing environments of any Chicagoland mall. To me, these beat the competition easily.
I'd say unfortunately that Chicago doesn't have any truly great lifestyle centers that really recreate the street-like ambiance of the best of what you find in places like California (the Grove in LA, Santana Row in SJ) or Florida (Mizner in Boca)....ours are basically just a string of stores facing a parking lot. the few that actually have a street scape (like Randhurst Village in Mt. Prospect) are nothing special. Would love to see a greatly themed lifestyle center in the Chicago area and, to me, that would be a place I'd like to go in the way I do to Old Orchard or Oakbrook.
Deer Park is a large, multi-site outdoor mall but it's not very pedestrian friendly (have to drive to get there and walking from one building to another has you crossing through large parking lots).
Malls like Woodfield in Schaumburg and the one in Vernon Hills have turned some areas outside facing but the inside is still primary.
In the Twin Cities they built the Shops at West End near the boarder or Minneapolis/St Louis Park/Golden Valley. Parking is mostly in ramps or underground. It's a beautiful new development but rents are very high and it's more for entertainment (movie, restaurants) than regular retail. It's also confusing the first few times you visit.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
