>>997765650 years ago, people were being fucking WOWed by malls. People couldn't get enough of them, and kept building htem larger and larger, dozens of them were being constructed every year until the 00s.
Malls have ALWAYS been popular, since they were first created millennia ago. The modern mall that you and I are familiar with was made in the 50s.
Peak mall-dom was the 90s.