Shopping malls defined the late 20th century, with major department stores like Macy’s, Sears and JCPenney attracting thousands of visitors each year, and restaurant chains and entertainment options — like movie theaters, ice skating rinks and playgrounds — making home in malls. Malls were withstanding steadily throughout the 2000s and 2010s, too.
However, with the passing of time, American mall culture has been on a steady decline. With the rise of e-commerce platforms and a need for retail functionality over social atmospheres like malls, mall retailers across the country have been shutting down. The COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 also caused economic distress for businesses and introduced new consumer trends where people largely depend on online shopping instead of in-person browsing.
Montgomery County, and the Rockville area in particular, has had its fair share of shopping malls throughout history: Westfield Montgomery in Bethesda (opened in 1968), Westfield Wheaton in Wheaton (opened in 1960), White Flint Mall in North Bethesda (opened in 1977) and Lakeforest Mall in Gaithersburg (opened in 1978).
The latter two malls closed in 2015 and 2023, respectively, meaning that Montgomery County residents consider the two Westfield malls as the busiest and most active malls in the community.
The 874,000 square-foot White Flint Mall, which was located along Rockville Pike and open for almost 40 years before closing, has been demolished. In a similar fate, demolition work is underway at Lakeforest Mall as redevelopment plans are in place at both locations.
According to the Bethesda Magazine, “Lerner Enterprises, developer of the White Flint Mall property, may receive help from the county to redevelop the 44-acre site in North Bethesda in the form of a county tax-increment financing (TIF),” and according to the MoCo Show, the Gaithersburg City Council approved a redevelopment plan for “1,600 residential units, 750,000 square feet of employment space, 250,000 square feet of large-format retail, and 220,000 square feet of commercial space.”
These redevelopment plans reflect the changing of times, where a lot of the county is in the midst of significant redevelopment plans and mall culture simply isn’t the same as it was before. “I think the declining mall culture is kind of sad to see because people would always gather together in malls and malls were a big part of my childhood as I had a lot of fond memories there,” senior Stephanie Yang said.
The recent Black Friday holiday is estimated to bring over $1 trillion of revenue. At Tysons Corner in Virginia, DC News Now reported that thousands of shoppers entered the mall for sales, suggesting that customers continue to flock to malls. “I went [to Tysons] on Black Friday, and it was like what you would expect a mall to be like, but not like what it should be on Black Friday. It would’ve been cool if they revamped [Lakeforest Mall] and then built a new mall,” senior Isabelle Salita said.
Regardless of the changes to mall culture in the county, other shopping centers like Rockville Town Center (RTC) and the Clarksburg Outlets continue to attract visitors.
