MALL HISTORY

Trajan's Markets, a large complex of warehouses, shops and offices where the Romans
would gather to purchase goods and conduct business, was built between 107 and
110 AD by Emperor Trajan's favorite architect, Apollodorus of Damascus. It was a
direct forerunner to the modern shopping mall.

The Grand Bazaar of Istanbul, which was built in the 15th century is one of the earliest shopping malls that is still
around and still one of the biggest shopping centers in the entire world, and it has over 4,000 shops and 58 streets.

The Oxford Covered Market in Oxford, England was officially opened on November 1, 1774, and is still going strong
today. Gostiny Dvor in St. Petersburg opened in 1785 had about 100 shops there. The Arcade in Providence,Rhode
Island introduced the concept to the United States in 1828. The Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II in Milan,Italy followed
in the 1860s and is closer to large modern malls in structure.
With the rise of the automobile and the suburb, there was a new style of shopping center that was built that was
farther away from the downtown. There were numerous tax incentives that encouraged investors to band together
and make shopping malls. It was a win-win economically and functionally for people in the suburbs and corporate
investors. The government helped encourage that kind of thing.

Early shopping centers designed for the automobile include Market Square, Lake Forest, Illinois (1916) and Country
Club Plaza, Kansas City, Missouri (1924). The concept was pioneered by the Austrian-born architect Victor Gruen.
J.C.Nichols, generally regarded as the father of the shopping center for his role in developing Country Club Plaza in
Kansas City (1924), established many of the financial, management, and merchandising concepts that were
fundamental to postwar shopping centers.(Margaret Crawford, The World in a Shopping Mall, pg.no.20
/https://www.uc.edu/cdc/urban_database/food.../the-world-in-shopping-mall-fix.)
The new generation called malls included Northgate Mall, built in north Seattle, in 1950, Gruen's Northland Shopping
Center, built near Detroit, in 1954, and the Southdale Center, the first fully enclosed mall, which opened in the Twin
Cities suburb of Edina, Minnesota in 1956. In the UK, Chrisp Street Market was the first pedestrian shopping area
built with a road at the shop fronts.
The world's first enclosed shopping mall was opened in Luleå, in northern Sweden in 1955 (architect:Ralph Erskine)
and was named Shopping. The first fully enclosed shopping mall in Canada was Wellington Square. It was designed
for Eaton's by John Graham, Jr. as an enclosed mall with a department store anchor and subterranean parking which
opened in downtown London, Ontario, on August 11, 1960. After several renovations, it remains open today as Citi
Plaza.

A very large shopping mall is sometimes called a Megamall. Giant megamalls weren't developed until the 1980s
when the West Edmonton Mall opened in Alberta, Canada with more than 800 stores in 1981 (20/09/2017
https://www.thoughtco.com/history-of-shopping-malls-4071864/ 1/3 Shopping Innovations: The History of the
Shopping Mall by Mary Bellis Updated August 09, 2016).
The Mall of Arabia inside Dubailand in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, opened in 2008, will become the largest mall in
the world at 929,000 square meters (10 million square feet.
(http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Shopping_mall)
The most visited shopping mall in the world and largest mall in the United States is the Mall of America, located
near theTwin Cities in Bloomington, Minnesota.
The first shopping mall of India, Spencer Plaza was built in 1863–1864, by Charles Durant and J. W. Spencer in Anna
Salai, Chennai. At that time the mall was one of the biggest shopping mall in South Asia.The mall history of India
takes us back to British Raj period. By 2013,the number of malls in India was 570 and this year it is said to hit 750.
( Shopping Malls : A Journey through the History of Mall Revolution/June 11,2015/ Business THE PREMIUM
BUSINESS MAGAZINE) The story of Delhi’s first mall, Ansal Plaza, which opened in 1999.( 20/09/2017/ The mall story
2.0/THE HINDU Business Line).

MALL CULTURE

The mall culture has come to India in a big way and has come to stay. The malls are multi- storeyed, modern,
beautiful buildings with lovely ambience containing a large number of shops or segregated sale outlets for every
conceivable consumer article, at convenient places-normally in the city center.

As India becomes more involved in globalization the nationals of the metro cities initially and now even small town
folks have grown to be more cosmopolitan. The malls are another sign of the new, prosperous India, of call centers,
outsourcing and more disposable income, of fashionable young people. (Mall culture and its implications Hiten
Trivedi 16 December, 2007). Although much of rural India remains in deep poverty, many urban Indians are
becoming richer. The country’s economy is forecast to grow up to 6.9 percent this year.

International brands used to be feathers in the hats of wealthy of the society which is now disrupted as global
brands have penetrated the domestic markets becoming common house hold names. Much of this shift in the buyer
preferences have been attributed to the emergence of mall culture in India.
With everything from groceries and vegetables to footwear, clothes, cosmetics, furnishings and electrical items
available under one roof, a growing middle class with higher disposable incomes is heading for the malls in droves.
Till few years back, people had to buy different things at different places. With the advent of malls, Irrespective of
whatever you wish to buy, just visit a nearby mall and you will find everything available at your fingertips. You just
name anything and the mall has it.
Malls provide a lot of social space to youngsters to enjoy their weekend or get together at one place without looking
for any alternative place. Some visit malls to shop, some to stroll and while away time with no goal in specific, and
For some, it is a way to chill out on movies and food in the added comfort of a fully air-conditioned space.

Because of their recent origin and with the multinational brand-showrooms, restaurants, multiplexes and adequate
parking space etc have become fun destination attracting and inducing people of all age groups to visit malls
frequently.
Emergence of youth as an independent shopper, convenient and easier shopping, change in lifestyle as well as
consumer perceptions, increasing standard of living could be attributed to emergence of mall culture
(www.reviewmandra/2016/03/How did mall culture emerge in India?/in html/Saturday, March 19, 2016 |
India,Lifestyle,)