West Edmonton Mall in the context of "Fashion Island (Bangkok)"

A shopping mall (or simply mall) is a large indoor shopping center, usually anchored by department stores. The term mall originally meant a pedestrian promenade with shops along it, but in the late 1960s, it began to be used as a generic term for the large enclosed shopping centers that were becoming increasingly commonplace. In the United Kingdom and other countries, shopping malls may be called shopping centres.

In recent decades, malls have declined considerably in North America, partly due to the retail apocalypse, particularly in subprime locations, and some have closed and become so-called "dead malls". Successful exceptions have added entertainment and experiential features, added big-box stores as anchors, or converted to other specialized shopping center formats such as power centers, lifestyle centers, factory outlet centers, and festival marketplaces. In Canada, shopping centres have frequently been replaced with mixed-use high-rise communities. In many European countries and Asian countries, shopping malls continue to grow and thrive.

Mall of America (MoA) is a large shopping mall located in Bloomington, Minnesota. Located within the Minneapolis–Saint Paul metropolitan area, the mall lies southeast of the junction of Interstate 494 and Minnesota State Highway 77, north of the Minnesota River, and across the Interstate from the Minneapolis–Saint Paul International Airport. It opened in 1992, on the former site of the Metropolitan Stadium, and is the largest mall in the United States, the largest in the Western Hemisphere, and the twelfth largest shopping mall in the world.

The mall is managed by the Canadian Triple Five Group (which in turn is owned by Canada's Ghermezian family, along with the West Edmonton Mall and the American Dream). Approximately 32 million people visit the mall annually, 80% of whom are from Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Nebraska, the Dakotas, Illinois and Ohio.