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Placer.ai Mall Index: May 2025 & Memorial Day Strength

Traffic increased across all mall formats in May 2025, likely bolstered by a strong Memorial Day performance.

By 
Shira Petrack
June 6, 2025
Placer.ai Mall Index: May 2025 & Memorial Day Strength
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About the Mall Index: The Index analyzes data from 100 top-tier indoor malls, 100 open-air shopping centers (not including outlet malls) and 100 outlet malls across the country, in both urban and suburban areas. Placer.ai leverages a panel of tens of millions of devices and utilizes machine learning to make estimations for visits to locations across the country. 
Key Takeaways
  • All mall formats experienced year-over-year visit increases in May 2025, showcasing the ongoing resilience of the shopping center space.
  • Malls outperformed the broader retail sector over Memorial Day weekend, perhaps due in part to their entertainment draws and the success of recent blockbusters. 
  • Despite a slight decrease in the median household income of visitors, malls are successfully maintaining foot traffic by evolving into social and experiential destinations, encouraging longer visit durations.

Traffic Increases Across All Formats 

Mall visits increased across all formats in May 2025 as consumer confidence improved. Indoor malls posted the largest gains with a 6.7% year-over-year (YoY) increase in visits, followed by open-air shopping centers (+5.0%) and outlet malls (+3.9%). 

The rise in mall visits for a second month in a row suggests that April's positive YoY visit trends were more than a temporary pull-forward of consumer demand in response to tariff uncertainty. Instead, the latest data indicates that the retail sector remains resilient despite the broader economic headwinds. 

Memorial Day Success 

Some of May's strength was likely also driven by the sector's strong showing over Memorial Day weekend. Indoor malls and open-air shopping centers saw their YoY visits spike on the Saturday and Sunday before the holiday – in contrast with the wider brick-and-mortar retail industry that saw relatively flat YoY visit numbers over the long weekend.  

This suggests that shopping centers continue to operate as more than just retail destinations. And malls' entertainment offerings – specifically movie theaters, which posted impressive Memorial Day box office numbers – likely helped boost traffic despite the more muted Memorial Day performance of other discretionary categories. 

May 2025 Audience and Visitation Patterns 

Diving into the demographic breakdown of mall visitors in May 2025 reveals the median household income (HHI) fell slightly for audiences across all mall formats – while visitation trends show an increase in average visit duration. 

This suggests that malls' current resilience is not due to their effective appeal to higher-income shoppers during times of economic uncertainty, as the median HHI in their trade areas is on par with (and even slightly lower than) May 2024 levels. Instead, the longer visit duration suggests that top-tier malls are succeeding by positioning themselves as social hubs and experiential destinations – using their diverse tenant base to keep visits up also during times of reduced retail activity. 

Malls are continuing to adapt to evolving consumer behaviors, with top-tier malls leaning into their role as multifaceted social and entertainment venues – positioning them well for continued growth and sustained relevance in a dynamic economic landscape.

For more data-driven consumer insights, visit placer.ai/anchor

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