Placer.ai: Indoor mall rise in July; how Boise Towne Square beat the average
Mall visits remained steady in July, with indoor centers seeing a slight increase year over year.
That’s according to the latest Placer.ai Mall Index for July 2025, which found that indoor mall traffic grew 1.3% year over year reversing June's visit declines. Placer.ai noted that the increase suggests that enclosed shopping centers continue to attract consumers seeking climate-controlled comfort during peak summer heat.
Open-air shopping centers and outlet malls narrowed their visit gaps, with visits to open-air shopping centers almost on par (-0.3%) with July 2024 levels. Visits to outlet malls in July were just 2.1% lower than the previous year.
Boise Towne Square
Placer.ai singled out one mall in particular for bucking the trend and seeing a massive year over year rise in visits in July. Boise Towne Square in Boise, Idaho, significantly outpaced the broader Placer.ai Indoor Mall Index in July, posting 12.2% year-over-year growth versus the national average of 1.3%. (The center has also consistently surpassed its pre-pandemic visit level every month of 2025 so far.)
A major traffic driver has been the In-N-Out eatery that opened at the mall in late October 2024. Since the opening, visits to Boise Towne Square have steadily increased, says Placer.ai, and other tenants, including other dining establishments, have also benefited from the sustained visit increases. (The mall marks the second Idaho location of the popular, California-based hamburger chain.)
“This demonstrates the powerful halo effect that a high-draw non-traditional anchor tenant can create for an entire shopping center,” said Shira Petrack, head of content at Placer.ai.
[READ MORE: Placer.ai: Back-to-school traffic expected to be strong]
While mid-July visits were generally up relative to 2024, perhaps boosted by the various July sales events, traffic across all three formats softened towards the end of the month, added Petrack.
“This may suggest that these major promotional events may be pulling demand forward rather than generating sustained, incremental traffic and highlights the challenge of converting a promotional 'sugar rush' into lasting momentum.”
