Tuesday, July 01, 2008

The 3 Largest Shopping Malls in the World

Shopping malls - something city dwellers can't live without. It's like a watering hole for buffaloes and hippos; it attracts all kinds of animals who either need the cooling rejuvenation of water or just simply to be part of the herd. You know how it is - you just need to be in one whether you really need to be or not.

I found out that the world's top three largest malls, based on gross leasable area according to Forbes Magazine, are:
1. South China Mall, Dongguan, China - opened 2005
2. Golden Resources Mall, Beijing, China - opened 2004
3. SM Mall of Asia, Manila Bay, Philippines - opened 2006

South China Mall covers 600,000 square meters of total floor area, which allows a leasable space for over 1,500 stores. Unfortunately the mall suffers from lack of retailers, believed to be due to its locality which is in the suburbs and only accessible by car, and is due for closure in July 2008.

Golden Resources Shopping Mall has about 680,000 square meters of area but allows for less retailers at 1,000 outlets only. It also faces the problem of being "under-shopped", again believed to be due to locality as well as high pricing, which does not cater for your average Chinese.

SM Mall of Asia has a total floor area of 386,224 square meters and is built on 19.5 hectares of reclaimed land. It consists of four building interconnected by walkways.

I'm not much of a mall visitor myself but I find it very interesting to see humans congregate at these places which they believed to be their source of everything and anything, come weekends or hoildays especially. Maybe it's an Asian thing. But then again, you also have the Mall of America.

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