Welcome to the largest mall and retail history site on the internet. The MALL HALL OF FAME is a vintage shopping mall scrapbook. Its focus is on shopping complexes built -in the USA- between 1946 and 1979. This site includes historical sections about regional department stores, discount stores, 5 & 10 stores and supermarkets. Don't forget to visit our four Shopping Mall Memory Lanes, which transport you through time to a mall in 1956, 1963, 1970 and 1977!
We begin our exploration of the Mart store phenomenon with the major discount chains created as divisions of large retail holding companies, regional chains, supermarkets, 5 & 10s and variety stores. The major retail holding companies, who operated various regional department stores, were especially alarmed by the advent of the discount mart. The discount chains that they spun off were a reaction, that -they hoped- would exploit the trend.