Placer.ai: Despite high gas prices, mall visits continued to rise in May
The mall’s increased focus on new dining, entertainment, and fitness tenants is paying off.
In its just-released May 2026 Mall Index Report, Placer.ai reports that traffic growth accelerated across all mall formats — even though their wide-ranging customer bases are paying a lot more for gas to arrive in mall parking lots than they did last May.
Open-air shopping centers produced the highest weekly traffic gain of 4.7% during the month, producing their highest lift of 6% on Thursdays. Indoor malls saw weekly visits rise by 1.7%, also marking their biggest May customer lift of 4% on Thursdays.
“May 2026 included one additional Sunday and one fewer Thursday than May 2025, and because Sundays typically generate stronger mall traffic than Thursdays, the difference in weekday composition likely provided a tailwind for visitation,” said Placer.ai’s head of content Shira Petrack.
All mall formats scored traffic gains over May 2025. Open-air centers were up by 5.5%, indoor malls by 2.7%, and outlet malls by 2%.
Though outlet malls produced the lowest increase, it should be noted that they depend on less affluent customers who make much longer drives to their centers than do customers at indoor malls and open-air centers.
What is setting malls apart?
Placer.ai’s May 2026 Mall Index pointed out that the mall’s widening expanse of uses may have customers scaling back on purchases of discretionary goods while still spending money within the mall ecosystem through restaurants, entertainment venues, and other services.
One other salient reason for their strong showing last month is that they draw consumers from more affluent trade areas, giving them greater access to households that have remained relatively insulated from current economic pressures.
“The combination of a more affluent customer base and an increasingly diversified mix of uses may help explain why mall traffic has remained resilient even as visitation across much of discretionary retail has softened,” Petrack noted.
