Malls are not really a thing in the UK. Sure you have shopping centres but they are just buildings in a town and are not really any different to other shops/the general experience when all is said and done, not to mention most kids hang around in parks/on the streets/in fields/in skateparks (once they came along) and while some might go into town (since probably about the late 70s and certainly 80s then most even vaguely large towns will have a red brick area where only pedestrians are allowed so any mall experience is more likely to be known as going to town) that is nowhere near the American experience as you would probably be walking there, riding your bike or taking a bus and getting home yourself rather than being dropped off by your mother or whatever and picked up later. Mall rats are not a thing and instead people in the UK will think you are speaking of one of Kevin Smith's better films if you say the phrase. That said I will have to note the town centre experience of the 80s, 90s and onwards (prior to that it was pretty much a saddle up the pony and make a trip to the big city unless you lived in one) has met a similar demise to US malls.
I have however visited the US for extended periods about every 3-5 years since the 90s and thus got to witness their demise in what is almost fast forward (though the people I stay with over there say it is way worse than when I was last there, and this was just as the "anchor" stores died off, think Sears had already gone from one of them or was at least on serious life support/basically a corridor). For my amateur anthropology studies then they are fascinating places to observe people in, and similar for economics, security and mind control (the mere idea of anchor stores is itself mind control). As any kind of personal enjoyment... slim to none.
Several of my female relatives on the other hand apparently adored them, indulging in the stereotypical shopping experience if given half a chance (and then doing it again tomorrow), much to the chagrin of my grandparents who got to play escort and generally went with my "get in, get out" approach.
The late 90s/early 2000s had a few shops that were quite interesting -- some nice independent DVD shops and game shops. Before then I might have been too young but it was a chain shop after chain shop and thus not too interesting. After that then also mostly seemed to be chains or fancy jewellery which has no appeal for me at any point really. Far more interested to go into some little private owned shops*, thrift shops, second hand book shops, costco, supermarkets, hardware shops, outdoors/hunting shops, gun shops and the like.
Visited some "outlet malls" a few times as well. Urge to kill all humans rising is mostly how that one went... can easily see how shopping mall gets mistaken for shooting gallery there as they have enough of the same letters and valid targets. One had some really nice hot dogs though.
Also it is much the same regardless of state I visit** (haven't done much of the east coast but enough central and west) but others have noted the copy-pasted nature of America far better than I will manage here. UK and rest of Europe wise then every new town is a new possibility really.
That said there was a weird mall type covered shopping/food place in sort of downtown Seattle that me of today might have visited the 90s version of with a time machine (saw it last early 2010s and it was not the same, saw it on a video a few months back and... there is a reason I don't visit Seattle proper any more).
*for instance I went into a mall as the exchange rates were very much in my favour and went to their skateboarding/extreme sports shop. Could speak to a bored teenager that is there without a clue but compared to going into a random town in the UK where a skate shop is, chatting to the owner about what is happening locally/good to skate and having a selection of interesting things, ditto for book shops, it is not even close and I am a terrifically antisocial bastard most of the time.
**though I did get laughed at when I/we went to walk some 200 metres max (pretty sure I could have batted a rock/used a slingshot and worried a window) between a shop on the outer ring and mall proper when in New Mexico. Instead had to get back in the car and drive closer which I found bizarre. It was summer and hotter than my ginger halfbreed self cared for but was not going to get heatstroke or anything. While it would still take several more trips to have "Americans drive everywhere" sink in properly that was probably the start of it. I still walk everywhere I can when there though (if you prefer miles if it is less than a... call it 6 mile trip I will do it on foot and can extend that several times if there is something interesting to see) even if it is quite difficult at times -- I live in the middle of the countryside and there are pavements/sidewalks and footpaths everywhere.
