We have one such mall in the Dayton area, absolutely destroyed by black youth who drove the white shoppers away. Another mall in the area is currently restricting the ours kids can enter without adult supervision. The nicest and newest has limited bus traffic around it’s perimeter.
The Salem Mall went down the tubes years ago.
Now a parking lot.
One of the busiest "malls" is the open air outlet center on the way to Xenia.
Always lots of people shopping.
Besides the obvious unstated reason, malls if they are located in the right part of town do alright.
But I have no explanation of why Tri-county (Cincinnati) Mall does well, but the much nicer Forest Fair Mall never quite cut the mustard.
It had much higher end stores, and was only a couple of miles from Tri-county.