Not in Asia, where land is cheap and labor costs are low. A building boom has enormous shopping malls popping up in China, Malaysia, and the Philippines, with India expected to jump into the fold soon. Based on gross leasable area, or the amount of space devoted to revenue-producing operations like stores, amusements and food, the continent is home to nine of the world's 10 largest malls, six of which have been built since 2004. That's added some 27 million square feet of shopping space to cities like Beijing and Guangzhou in China and Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia.
Just four years ago, the top 10 list would have included a pair of popular California destinations – South Coast Plaza in Costa Mesa and Del Amo Fashion Center in 
Los Angeles – along with the King of Prussia Mall in Pennsylvania and the famed Mall of America in Bloomington, Minn.
While many traditional malls in North America are getting squeezed by a big-box era that includes the likes of Wal-Mart stores, Best Buy, and Target in nearly every county, Asia's rapidly growing economy has spawned a new wave of consumers looking for places to shop and play.
It's almost unimaginable, the boom that has occurred in these Eastern cities. Many more of those regions' consumers now own cars, he notes, a phenomenon that has stimulated demand for more destination shopping centers. That's attracted money from mall-management groups from outside the country, largely from Indonesia and Japan. In the hope of finding future growth, developers are turning to mixed-use centers, projects that combine retail, dining, entertainment and residential living units, not unlike some of the new Asian malls, like the Beijing Mall and Berjaya Times Square in Malaysia.
Most of them are quite ritzy, too. A pair of Chinese malls that rank as the world's two largest – the South China Mall in Dongguan and Golden Resources Mall in Beijing – include features like wind mills and kids' theme parks. Golden Resources Mall is surrounded by newly built apartments and office buildings.
These people need a place to shop, and it's not going to be at the old shopping districts that date back to the days of traditional socialist rule. There's a downside to all this building in China, at least in the short term. With many residents still accustomed to shopping in small local shops, demand isn't yet keeping up with supply at the new, big malls, according to information supplied to Eastern Connecticut. Malls built outside the downtown areas of major metros could have trouble surviving.
