This seems a bit out of place in a finance blog, but well it was on my mind.

I hate the nearest mall, Concord Mills. it is large, with many essentially duplicate stores, but, I never knew that. Because it is clustraphobic! The mall is one story, thin corridors which are always full of keosks or vibrating chairs or something. It has crappy bathrooms most of which contain at least one broken sink or toilet or empty paper dispenser.

Now I have nothing against one story, or kiosks, one of my favorite stops pre-kids was an incense kiosk (at a different mall). I have a problem with cramming thousands of people in a space that seems more suited to fit hundreds, and throwing a bazillion kiosks so close together that you simply turn around at one to touch the knick-knacks at another.

On the other hand I have fond memories of the mall in PA, Ross park mall (it has since changed, if you live there, know it is not what I remember as a kid) big, new, bathrooms while they had a line at the holiday season, worked, and they were designed so the line waited out of the path of folks washing hands and getting out.

Ross park was two story, and the kiosks had room between them. there was a wonderful openness to the eating areas, of course there were tons of folks eating during peak seasons, but you didn't feel like you were looking at a school lunchroom with tons of folks crammed in as closely as possible, you were looking at spacious tables and lots of packages, with plenty of light to see them by.

So should you ever become rich enough to afford to design your own mall, aim for huge open spaces with TONS of light, large bathrooms designed for a in and out flow of people, and don't try to cram too many tables in the eating areas.