Placer.ai: Open-air, indoor malls continue visit momentum in August
Open-air shopping centers and indoor malls saw strong visit increases in August as shoppers geared up for the back-to-school season.
Placer.ai’s August 2026 Mall Index revealed that open-air centers led all three formats during the month, with visits up 6.6% year over year, while indoor malls hit their strongest gain of the year, with visits rising 5.0%.
Outlet malls, meanwhile, saw visits fall 2.7% compared to last year, which was the sector’s weakest performance since March. Placer.ai noted that outlet malls were likely more susceptible to higher gas prices, which increase up on average in August after easing in June and July.
Outlets may have been particularly affected by the Labor Day calendar shift. Last year, part of the holiday weekend fell in August, while this year the entire weekend moved into September, removing a key travel and promotional period from the month’s traffic comparison.
[READ MORE: Placer.ai: Best Buy store visits rebound in Q2]
All three mall formats saw longer average dwell times in August compared to the previous year. Placer.ai said this extended an uptick in visitor engagement that began to emerge in July after several months of declining year-over-year visit duration.
“August data points to a resilient mall shopper, with visits rising at open-air and indoor centers and dwell times increasing across all three formats,” said Lila Margalit, content manager at Placer.ai. “Whether that resilience carries into the holidays may depend in part on what happens at the pump – though malls are entering the fall with plenty of reasons for optimism.”
