2026 Top 10 Retail Center Experiences: No. 5 — Mall of America

(Chain Store Age ranks the most innovative shopping center experiences each year. We will be counting down the top 10 until No. 1 is revealed.)

On the night before Black Friday 2025, temperatures were in the 20s in Bloomington, Minn., yet the atmosphere was much warmer in the parking lot of Mall of America (MOA) due to the massive encampment of people eager to be the first to cash in on the cornucopian deals awaiting them inside the nation’s largest retail venue.

More than 14,000 guests arrived within the first hour of its doors being opened. By the end of the day, more than 235,000 had coursed through MOA’s 5.6 million square feet. Visitations over the holiday weekend exceeded half-a-million — a number larger than the population of nearby Minneapolis.

“Mall of America stands apart on a national level not simply because of its size, but because of its ability to continuously redefine what a modern retail and entertainment destination can be,” said the merchandising mammoth’s chief marketing officer Jill Renslow. “It operates as a dynamic platform where experiential retail, storytelling, and innovation, come together to create moments that cannot b replicated anywhere else in America.”