“Mom, Gen Z is making something else cool again!” And this time, it’s the mall. For older generations, malls were everything: a place to shop, hang out, meet friends, and spend entire weekend afternoons. Now, there’s a growing narrative that Gen Z is bringing that same energy back. Recent headlines from “Gen Z is Hanging Out at the Mall” and “Gen Z is making shopping malls cool again” to “A New Generation of Mall Rats Has Arrived” and “Teens Sick of Their Phones Are ‘Mallmaxxing’,” all point to a renewed interest in these once-iconic spaces of the ‘80s and ‘90s....