Shopping mall; a modern day phenomenon

M. Taufiqurrahman, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Shopping, which was once considered a chore, has become over the years a pastime, leading to the development of shopping malls as we know them today.

A shopping mall in which stores are arranged in a row with a sidewalk in front and developed as a unit with a large parking lot are a relatively recent development that corresponded with the rise of suburbs after World War II in the United States.

In the late 20th century, with the rise of the suburb and automobile culture in the U.S., a new form of mall was created away from the city centers.

The first concept of a modern shopping mall in the U.S. was developed by the Austrian-born architect Victor Gruen, who based his model on the inner city's shopping district of Vienna.

The first mall constructed based on his concept was the Northgate mall, which was located in North Seattle.

Later, he used his ideas to build new models for Northland Shopping Center, built near Detroit, in 1954 and Victor Gruen's Southdale Center, located in the Twin Cities suburb of Edina, Minnesota in 1956.

From there, malls spread throughout America and the rest of the world.

A very large shopping mall or megamall appeared in Canada. West Edmonton Mall in Alberta, Canada has held the title of the largest enclosed shopping mall for 20 years.

The most visited shopping mall in the world and largest mall in the United States is the Mall of America, located near the Twin Cities in Bloomington, Minnesota.

In recent times, as more modern facilities are built, many early malls have become largely abandoned, due to decreased traffic and tenancy.

These dated and deteriorating "dead malls" have failed to attract new business and often sit unused for many years until restored or demolished.

While the "shelf lives" of old malls have expired in developed countries, malls have made their way into the developing world.

Beijing's Golden Resources Shopping Mall opened in October 2004 is currently the world's largest, at 6 million square feet (600,000 square meters).

The Mall of Arabia inside Dubai Land in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates, which will open in 2006, will become the largest mall in the world.

Arguably, both are smaller than Berjaya Times Square, which is advertised at 7 million square feet.

In Indonesia, especially in Jakarta, the modern shopping mall is also a recent phenomenon, which thrived in tandem with the rise of the nouveau riche that came after the oil boom in the early 1980s.

However, the country's first modern shopping mall was constructed long before that period.

The mall, more appropriately called a department store, is Sarinah on Jl. Thamrin in Central Jakarta, which was constructed in the early 1960s.

The brainchild of the country's first president, Soekarno, Sarinah was intended to be the first modern shopping mall in the country and has served its function until the new models of mall were later introduced.

A state-owned company, Sarinah now has 13 outlets throughout the country.

After Sarinah, which continues to thrive, the second generation of popular shopping mall is Pasaraya, a chain owned by local businessman Abdul Latief.

Basing its concept on the Japanese Seibu supermarket, Pasaraya ruled the market from the early 1970s onward until more modern shopping malls with cutting-edge concepts eclipsed its services.