Vacations and Travel - Shopping As Recreation

Americans love to shop, and for many, shopping means "heading to the mall." According to the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC), in 2003 there were 46,990 shopping centers in the United States, which contained a total of 5.9 billion square feet of leasable retail space. California had the most shopping centers, with 6,243, and Wyoming the fewest—fifty-five.

An estimated 203.1 million adults visited shopping centers each month in 2003, up from 201.1 million in 2002. The average customer spent $68.20 per mall visit. The ICSC estimated that 76% of all nonautomotive retail sales (nearly $2 trillion worth) were generated by shopping centers, and that 17.6 million Americans were employed by them, or 14% of all nonagricultural workers in the United States.

According to the ICSC, the five largest shopping centers in the United States in 2003 were the Mall of America (Bloomington, Minnesota), King of Prussia Plaza (King of Prussia, Pennsylvania), South Coast Plaza (Costa Mesa, California), The Galleria (Houston, Texas), and Woodfield Mall (Schaumburg, Illinois). Although many of the largest ones were enclosed, 95% of shopping centers were open-air—according to the ICSC, there were just 1,130 enclosed malls in the United States.

Outlet Malls

Outlet shopping malls have become major attractions for American travelers. Outlet stores typically offer bargains on overstocked, discontinued, or slightly imperfect merchandise from major brand names. In 2003, according to the ICSC, there were 230 outlet malls, which had generated an estimated $16.5 billion in retail sales during 2002. The 2000 TIA Travel Poll reported that out of all travelers on trips of one hundred or more miles away from home, almost 40% visited an outlet mall. Of the visitors, 46% were men and 54% were women. One out of ten respondents cited outlet shopping as the primary reason for the trip. Most said it was the secondary reason, and about 10% said it was not an original reason for the trip, although they did visit an outlet mall.

The Mall of America

Opened in 1992, the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota, was America's largest shopping mall in 2004, and the second largest in the world. More than 4.2 million square feet in size, it had more than 520 shops, sixty restaurants, eight nightclubs, a walk-through aquarium, and Camp Snoopy, the world's largest indoor family theme park. Built at a cost of $650 million, the mall employed more than eleven thousand people year round and was visited by approximately forty million people per year. Many were tourists who visited for a weekend of shopping. Tourists, 73% of whom drove there by car or bus, spent an average of $129 per visit in 2002, according to Mall of America officials.