Outdoor shopping centers continue to be the preferred retail experience for consumers. By the end of August, consumer traffic was down only 24.6% at outdoor shopping malls compared to pre-pandemic foot traffic, according to research from Placer.ai. This is a significant recovery from March and April, when outdoor foot traffic was down nearly 100%. Indoor malls have not fared as well. The same report shows that indoor mall foo traffic, while also vastly improved from March and April, is still down 37.2% from pre-pandemic levels.

While both outdoor malls and indoor malls are improving overall, week-to-week data also show volatility. For outdoor malls, the week of August 31 was a decline from August 17, when foot traffic was down only 18%. The week was a post pandemic hit a peak for foot traffic. Indoor malls actually outperformed outdoor malls the same week for the first time during the pandemic with foot traffic down only 17% from pre-pandemic levels.

While outdoor malls have seen stronger foot traffic, indoor malls have seen a higher caliber of visits, according to the Placer.ai research, meaning that on average visits at indoor malls were longer and consumers traveled a further distance. At the beginning of August, consumers stayed at indoor malls an average of 64 minutes, while consumers at outdoor malls stayed only 51 minutes. Shoppers also traveled a longer distance, showing that the true trade area of indoor malls was 25.4% larger than outdoor malls. By the end of August, indoor malls had a true trade area difference of 78.6%. Still, early June seems to have been the peak for distance traveled. In early June, indoor malls had an 87.8% true trade area difference over outdoor malls.