Where I live it rains for 9 months out of the year (and is very hot 2 of the other months - we maybe get 1 month of nice outdoor weather a year). I'd much prefer an enclosed space. Though, let's be honest, I'd really prefer someone to just drop my purchases off at my doorstep so I don't have to deal with the weather at all.

We are only thinking of malls in the classic context.

For the last 10+ years many "malls" have been outdoor "areas" with shops, beautified walking paths, communal spaces, grocery stores, movie theaters, etc. Essentially miniature downtowns.

We have both these and the classic style mall here. Only 2 or 3 classic malls any more. However, they are all VERY successful. There were 7-8 and I've watched many die, or be taken over by distribution hubs, data centers (think big non-customer facing building)

We've had about 3-4 outdoor malls developed in the last 10 years. All are going strong, albeit they are new.

Never? I certainly prefer a mall over a nice outdoor space (which I have available to me) when it’s freezing outside with a sheen of ice covering everything.

> A mall would never be preferable to what was mentioned above, a downtown with brick paths and quality scenery/stores, etc.

Sounds great, until it snows.

A mall would be 10x preferable to that stuff when it's -10 degrees out.