Mike Porter, professor of marketing at the University of St. Thomas Opus College of Business, recently spoke with KARE 11 about the revival of malls as holiday shoppers seek experiences and retail therapy, with increased traffic and creative uses of mall spaces driving the comeback.

The start of the holiday shopping season has been encouraging at the Mall of America and many more malls across America.

“A lot more retail therapy going on, if you want to think about it that way,” said University of St Thomas Marketing Professor Dr. Mike Porter. “We’re really looking for experiences now, and while we’re going to continue to purchase online there is something about getting out and shopping and engaging with others.”

Reports from Simon Malls and Placer.ai both indicate traffic up between 5-10% at all types of different malls nationwide during the long Thanksgiving/Black Friday holiday weekend.

Porter said some of that surge can be explained by the later, more truncated, start to the holiday shopping season.

Dr. Mike Porter: “Marketers have turned Black Friday into the beginning of that shopping season, well if that beginning starts later, then we have to accommodate with truncated sales and everything is kind of crammed together.”