I agree; here in central Europe, malls are doing quite nicely. There’s three in my town, including a brand-new one with some high-end stores. All three are invariably crowded with shoppers.
A high-end mall in Prague (Palladium) recently sold for a little over one billion USD. Palladium is indeed high-end, very high-end.
It’s only competition in Prague is Pariská street, where it’s entirely possible to drop a quarter million bucks in about five minutes. :O
How many, um, "yutes" are around? Do you think that might have anything to do with their success?