Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by iviv 1183 days ago
Out of curiosity, is it idiomatic to call a street next to a shopping center a mall? Ignorant Finn here.
2 comments

No, probably my age and background. Street with shops and no cars.
I think in the US that would colloquially be called an:

Outdoor mall

Mall alone being the 80s style indoor walkable variety. A 'strip mall' usually a single (often deformed to some degree) line of stores along a sidewalk next to a huge parking lot, also often with an island restaurant or small store that wants to stand out closer to the street edge of said lot.

"Mall" can refer to a pedestrian area within a city more generally; shops are optional, e.g.,

https://nps.gov/nama/index.htm

Also, sometimes cars,

https://www.royalparks.org.uk/parks/st-jamess-park/things-to...

Sometimes. “Mall” alone generally refers to a big indoor shopping space with many distinct stores; I'd probably call the outdoor version an... “outdoor mall”.