Shopping malls are making a comeback in America

“This is where people of today’s world hang out,” explained Bill Preston, a student, to Socrates. Mr Preston was not your typical member of the Socratic circle. The year was 1988 and they were riding the escalator at a mall. That the makers behind “Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure”, a film about two high-schoolers transporting historical figures to their present day, chose this setting is unsurprising. Since America’s first fully enclosed mall opened in Minnesota in 1956, thousands had sprung up across the country. Malls were the new agora where the demos came to eat, shop and, indeed, “hang out”.