Are malls ever built in rural areas? (suburban, highway, freeways)

[the city]

I know I have heard of Wal-Mart Supercenters being built on outskirts of town. I have never heard of malls built in rural areas. I think of the traditional sense that malls are in suburban neighborhoods or alone freeways in commercial districts.

I think of the mall as one symbol of suburbia. But I know malls are in urban areas as well. Are they in rural areas too?

[nei]

Rural areas usually don't have the population to support malls. They can be built on the rural / urban fringe. For example, one mall near is built next to a field where cattle is grazing. It's not really in much of a neighborhood, few live right there, it's a main road that connects two towns, gets lots of traffic and is partially surrounded by undeveloped land. It's also connected to nearby towns by bike path, which follows roughly the road.

[memph]

There's an outlet mall being built in my area between a suburb and exurb on a major highway, but it's surrounded by farmland: Hornby, on - Google Maps

[the city]

Originally Posted by nei

Rural areas usually don't have the population to support malls. They can be built on the rural / urban fringe. For example, one mall near is built next to a field where cattle is grazing. It's not really in much of a neighborhood, few live right there, it's a main road that connects two towns, gets lots of traffic and is partially surrounded by undeveloped land. It's also connected to nearby towns by bike path, which follows roughly the road.

So I guess in some cases malls are in rural fringe areas.

[genjy]

Not rural as in cows and cornfields--but in California, we have store outlet malls in the middle of deserts.

[animatedmartian]

Birch Run, Michigan (population of 1555) has an unusually large outlet mall right off the freeway. The nearest cities of a decent size are 20 minutes away.

43.24686,-83.778011 - Google Maps

[nybbler]

Aside from outlet malls, the closest I can think of off the top of my head is the Francis Scott Key Mall in Frederick, MD; I don't know if it's within the Frederick city boundary, but it was certainly a rural area when it was built (not now, though).

[ogre]

Originally Posted by nei

Rural areas usually don't have the population to support malls. They can be built on the rural / urban fringe. For example, one mall near is built next to a field where cattle is grazing. It's not really in much of a neighborhood, few live right there, it's a main road that connects two towns, gets lots of traffic and is partially surrounded by undeveloped land. It's also connected to nearby towns by bike path, which follows roughly the road.

I think I know the mall you're talking about:

Google Maps.

The satellite and Earth views show that the mall is definitely a bit out in the country. I've been known to describe that area as "semi-rural." There are two fairly large towns and a number of little villages in the vicinity. This stretch of road runs between the two large towns. There is a strip of widely spaced chain restaurants and small malls, with the rest of the road between these two towns passing mostly farms and some scattered woods.

[the city]

I agree it's more common to see outlet malls in rural areas. Since outlet malls drive on smaller populations or tourist populations.

The department stores usually drive on larger amounts of middle and upper middle class populations.

[luv4horses]

There is a large mall in VA that is built outside of any cities, but at a major highway crossroads. I am sure development will be initiated around this core.