Why would I ever go to mall? It is an awful experience. At most, when it would be too cumbersome to bring on public transport, I rent a car.

Not a "shopping mall" mall, but an old-school open area with shops and restaurants. I don't know if you watch Ted Lasso, but Lasso and Beard live right next to a mall and frequently walk through it or meet up at a bench there.

We don’t build old school open areas with shops and restaurants that you can walk to!!

> […] but an old-school open area with shops and restaurants.

Which was the original idea for them:

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shopping_mall#Downtown_pedestr...

But then car-centric urban design happened.

* * *

you don't go to a mall for regular food shopping. You go once in a while to buy less common items.

Maybe I missed it but does that article say what the mean square footage of these malls are or where they are placed?

In America we only have mega malls with giant square footage and the only way to get to them is by driving.

When I have been in Europe I’ve noticed very little in the way of American style malls within any city (let’s take Amsterdam as an example). I do find “malls” that might just be a few offices with street level retail selling Jack Wolfskin products and maybe a Starbucks but they aren’t all that distinguishable from most of the rest of the city.

In Columbus where I live the metro has a population of around 2.2 million (all drivers) and we have two malls that are still operating (I think we’ve had maybe 5 at one point?) and one is Polaris Fashion Place at 1.2 million square feet and the other is Easton Town Center which is 1.6 million square feet. That’s probably average for a city in America.

So for an average city in America I’ve got 0 walking or transit to the mall - 100% only drivers, and I’m at nearly 3 million square feet which is like top 10 easy on that list too.

Europe has malls. Sure. The question is does Europe have malls in the same way America does, and I’m not convinced the answer is yes, which is what really matters. Well, not me being convinced so much as all the associated driving.

Taking Copenhagen, there are two large shopping centres of 115,000m² and 58,000m², plus several more of around 15,000-30,000m². The smaller ones are generally a large (for Europe) supermarket in the basement, then other shops and restaurants on the ground and upper floors.

The two larger ones have commuter rail, metro, bus and cycle access, and parking for cars.

I'm sure the others have some parking, but it's not obvious as I've never used a car to visit one.

But, this city is the 'perfect' one, and there is a lot of range in-between. There are certainly large shopping malls in Europe with only road access, though they are almost certain to have bus services. Bluewater Shopping Centre just outside London is the first example that comes to mind.

Indeed - I grew up driving past it weekly as it got built, and worked in it for a summer job. The quintessential out of town shopping centre.

It really depends on where you live of course. If you live on a farm, you can't expect to have a supermarket next door.

However, the number of shopping malls is irrelevant; most shops are not in malls. In cities, there's generally shopping streets that have a wide variety of all sorts of shops. In suburban areas, there's often a small shopping center with one or two supermarkets, a Chinese restaurant, a snackbar, and a couple of other shops. Big American-style malls are rare here.

And supermarkets are very common. Just Netherland alone has over 6000 of them, and at least 6 of those are within 1.5 km from my home. There's a shopping center 500 m from my house, and a major shopping steet 1 km in the other direction. Stuff is dense, exactly because it doesn't focus on massive malls.

And for anything they don't have in my neighbourhood, I take my bike.

Of course this is a city; in small villages you'll probably still need a car for anything beyond bread and basic groceries.