Honestly, in my childhood opinion, it was fine, just trying out food and drinks (whether from shopping or restaurants), testing electronics and arcade games, maybe even buying some toys or going to indoor play areas.
Though the novelty of it soon worn out gradually, taking a walk and peek at around these areas for anything interesting is good once in a while, even if you're not buying anything.
Edit: on sec thoughts, should I place this in the urbanism community? And just so you know, I'm not an American, so I wouldn't know what butcherism might occur in the implementation of malls.
I support their proliferation because they centralize commodity distribution
Every mall is a potential future distribution and community center
I can understand critical support for such places, but this feels a bit uncritical, if not rosy tinted. But, hey, who am I to say this?
It's not really a matter of support, critical or otherwise, they're a utility plain and simple, they can be badly designed or well-designed, well-placed or plopped in the middle of a highway, but the fact is they simplify logistics and concentrate scaled social interaction like any central marketplace throughout history
Under capitalism, the concept is usually wasted by the fact they're used as heavily policed modern-day bazaars for trendy consumption products, under socialism the function and utility can expand from the limited horizon of privatized accumulation
The space provides numerous advantages for social development, just have to kick out the capitalists who control the venues
Sorry, I was kinda caught off guard by the others' critical response, so I just said that, in awareness of that, but I agree that it's good to remember that malls won't necessarily stay that way, from a change of capitalist base and thus superstructure to socialist ones.