Mall of America - Overview

https://www.mallofamerica.com/

The Mall of America is really big. At 4,870,000 square feet, it is the largest shopping mall in the United States, though for the largest malls in the world it barely makes the top 30. Mere numbers can be hard to grasp.

It stretches out very far.

Navigation is done by coordinates. Each store has a letter and number, indicating whether it is North, West, South, or East, and they go essentially in numerical order, but it can be surprisingly easy to get lost, or to suddenly find you have switched wings.

Some of the vastness may be best illustrated by going over the duplicates. For example, there is both Claire's and Icing, and Hot Topic and Torrid.  There is Old Navy and Gap and Banana Republic. Eddie Bauer and L.L. Bean. It's not that it is completely unheard of to have similar stores in the same mall, but it's hard to think of something that is missing.

There were mall staples, and stores I had never heard of before.

And the food court just seemed to go on forever.

I thought we should do one complete circuit on every level, because then we would know that we weren't missing anything. As simple as that sounds, it wasn't. You just keep going and going and get distracted. Also, there are a few duplicates. Surprisingly there were only three Starbucks, but that may be mainly the result of the competition from Caribou Coffee.

In addition to the regular store spaces, there were also many kiosks.

We were excited to see a brick and mortar store for Greater Good. We had no idea such a thing existed.

One of our favorite things was the selection of Minnesota-themed stores. We thought Minnesot-Ah! had the best name, but there was also Love From Minnesota and I <3 br="" competition-wise.="" easy="" has="" in="" it="" kind="" made="" minnesota.="" of="" oregon="">

We were also excited to run into another iCandy. We found it a fun place to explore and talk to staff in Chicago, and it was here as well. Of course, there were at least six other candy stores, but with different themes (Lindt, Godiva, Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory, Northwoods Candy Emporium, It's Sugar, and the Peeps Store).

That may seem excessive, and such a large mall also probably seems excessive. The larger ones are often associated with wealthy countries, but before that trend, the largest malls were associated with cold weather, where you need to be able to do things inside.

That is certainly true for Bloomington, and something we will explore in the next few posts.