I've gone to this place a couple times. There isn't too much there that appeals to me.

that's pretty cool how they are asking the state/taxpayers to help pick up the tab.

i wish i could get taxpayer support next time i rehab my apartment.

Maybe this where the number Starbucks per square mile will reach critical mass and go nuclear

The John Hodgman article about the Mall of America is one of the funniest things I have ever read. Also, will this make it the largest mall in the country or the continent?

Wait... HOTELS? As in plural? What a shoddy way to increase your "retail" area for a title.

I went there several years ago and my favorite place by far was the General Mills Cereal Adventure store. I bought a Boo Berry tshirt that I've never worn. Also, that John Hodgman article is pretty great, yes.

Camp Snoopy (the amusement park) rocks, otherwise, it's a miserable collection of chain stores and small businesses selling tchotkes. The last time I was there was 1999 and there were a lot of stores being rented by people selling Beanie Babies (TM). It was kind of sad.

@robrob: If you can turn your apartment into a major tourism center, you might be able to pull it off :-)

As someone who lives in the shadow of another giant mall, MoA didn't impress me much.

Mall near me has been trying to increase its size for a few years now, in an effort to make it the largest mall in the country. Thankfully there has been lot of resistance.

That's not a mall, that's a small city.

Next: condos at Mall of America. Am I right?

It will have the same number of stores, but everything will be twice as large in order to keep pace with the size of its patrons.

@bluebuilder: They've only got two right now. Interestingly, this is significantly less than the number of Starbucks we have here in Austin in a comparable amount of space.

What is with all the complaints about it having nothing but chain stores? It is a MALL!! What did you expect?

What that made you think the MOA would be something beyond Planet Hollywood, Gap, and a collection other chain brands, but in one large area?

We are all very impressed at how you have noticed that Starbucks has a lot of stores, and chains are everywhere, and how you probably don't own a television, but get over yourselves already!

That is nothing compared to what is going on by me. They are building a mall with condos, hotels, movie theater, ice skating and they are also going to be making a path train to it. Its in east rutherford, nj currently where the Giants Stadium is located. They are trying to rebuild the stadium further back. HUGE project.

http://www.meadowlandsxanadu.com/static/node1304.jsp;jsess...

I live in Minneapolis, which is NOT where the Mall of America resides. It resides in Bloomington, MN. That said, here are a couple of related comments.

1. It isn't all that impressive, if you ask me.
2. I wager that they're going to end up building a new Twins Ballpark near here as well.
3. New construction is set to include several performance spaces, including a 4000 seat auditorium.
4. Camp Snoopy is NO MORE. The rights to use Snoopy were not renewed by the company that owns the rights. The amusement park is now known as "The Park at MOA".
5. My wife used to work at a store there, for a brief period of time when we first moved here. Friggin' chaos.
6. We like to go there on Black Friday and just sit and watch the chaos (drinking our overpriced coffee, of course.)
7. Oh, and there are more Caribou Coffee shops than Starbucks. It is a local company, after all.

I grew up about fifteen minutes from the Mall of America, thus causing me to frequent the place whenever bored. The place is pretty ridiculous. However, the draw of high-end stores (aka, an Apple store which most malls don't normally have) can pay off.

The thought of the mall expanding makes me cringe. The place is overpopulated, most chains have two to three stores inside the mall. With the recent addition of an IKEA just across the street, the whole area is just going to become a conglomerate of the mall.

Meh. My wife and I walked through the mall a couple of years ago and there was nothing spectacular about it except for the amusement park. We don't give a crap about any of the clothing stores because unless you live in the area who goes to MOA for clothes? Just about everything else was the norm for a mall or uninteresting. Given that we had a map it was easy to pick out where we wanted to go and get out.

Just a very noisy place, I've visited there, worked there, even was there on it's first day.

Just not very convenient to find shops you look for, nor better ways to travel through it.

It is convenient that there is a LightRail station in the basement, for easy access to Downtown Minneapolis.

I would love to meet some fellow consumerists there someday, share some tips, support each other...etc.

I went to The Mall of America once during a long layover at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. What struck me was the fact that I was in a REALLY BIG mall. I mean, this mall is REALLY BIG -- bigger than any mall I've ever been to.

Anyway, I went to the A&W in the food court, got a root beer float, and then went back to the airport and got faced in a bar.

I worked at Nordstrom at the MOA for quite awhile. While some of the comments here have a ring of truth, much of them are typical over-the-top criticism. Taxpayers are willing to contribute to expanding the MOA because it does bring in the tourists who enjoy shopping here because of the (1) wide selection in (2) a single space (3) with no sales tax on clothing.

solareclipse asks "unless you live in the area who goes to MOA for clothes?" The answer? A LOT more tourists shop at the MOA for clothes than locals. Locals prefer smaller "dale" malls (Rosedale, Ridgedale, Southdale, etc.) Retail historical tidbit: the first indoor shopping mall is Southdale in Edina, MN.

Yes, the majority of the stores are the usual retail chain stores, but those of you who don't own a TV and boycott Starbucks just because they're Starbucks might be surprised to learn that chain stores are popular among middle-class Americans. That is why they became chains. The MOA actually has two Starbucks (and three Caribous) and no Planet Hollywoods.

After having several retail jobs, I was grateful for the MOA's dining selections (and mall employee discount!) It's hard to pack a lunch for a mall job and a person gets sick of eating at Pretzelmaker every single day.

I personally only shop at the MOA for certain stores that aren't available elsewhere in the cities (such as Nordstrom), but I am still grateful to this retail village for the dollars it brings into the state from both American and foreign tourists.

if they add a blues brothers roller coaster, like the mall scene from the movie, i'm all for it.

God, as a local, I can't stand the MOA.
It feels like half the stores sell tourist merch, either for MN or the mall itself.
There are so many tourists who tend to stop in the middle of the walkways just to admire how big the place is, which blocks the people who know what they want, and want to get the hell out.
There are plenty of malls within half an hour of MOA that are much more preferable - Eden Prairie, Southdale (first enclosed mall ever!), and Ridgedale - and two of those have Apple Stores.
Nickelodeon just won the bid for the Park... if they have a Legends of the Hidden Temple attraction, I'll take back every negative comment about MOA.
I'm pretty sure Cereal Adventures is gone, too.

"The John Hodgman article about the Mall of America is one of the funniest things I have ever read."

Where can I find this article? Is it available online? (I did a google search and found many references to a chapter in his book "The Areas of My Expertise." but nothing about an article version.)

I live under 20 minutes for MOA (Mall of Aerica) and I can't understand why they would expand it at this point. There are quite a few empty store fronts and repeated stores. If you can't fill up your current space why would you invest in more space to lose money on?

@Edidid: because then they might have to change the name to "mall of east-central-minnesota" if they weren't the biggest ;)

Been there, nothing special. I do heart the Ikea tho.

It's now only third largest? So that begs the question, which mall is the largest?

King of Prussia is the largest mall in America. West Edmonton Mall is the largest on the continent, and CityStars Mall in Egypt is the world's largest. If MoA doubles in size, it will still be smaller than the West Edmonton Mall.

I'm a local and I go to the MOA all the time - I can get tons of shit done at once. It has MN's only H&M (admittedly the worst one I've been to besides the one outside Chicago), Nordstrom Rack has good deals, and the people watching is great. It's not like we're BFF but it's convenient as hell and there are bars there.

I've been to the West Edmonton mall twice on visits to Canada. It was quite big. Lots of theme parks and arcades. Plural. It rocked.

@B: King of Prussia? I live close to there and go there quite a bit. It doesn't seem THAT large. Some of that is also a little bogus because it's really two malls that aren't connected. To walk from one to the other requires going outside across a parking lot (via a covered walkway at least) and then walk through a Macy's store.

Also a bit bizarre is that many stores are duplicated in each "mall." (The Court and The Plaza)

Does the MOA at least have a book store?

Hot tip for consumerists... Take it from a local, if your going to check out this mall, don't even bother stepping inside on a weekend if your not willing to give up a few hours to push yourself though piles of people.

Go durring mid week if you want to get any shopping done. Its just crazy to go on the weekend. Use the parking ramp, and park on florda or above if you use the east side ramp. You want to shoot for the 3rd or even better the 4th floor. The 4th is mostly empty last time I was there other than a hooters and other shops you pass on your way to hooters, but never much of a crowd up there.

And yes lest time I was there there was a book store... I forget which one, but one of the bigger chains, or maybe they were moving?.. Ehh goes to show how much I stop into a book store..

@weave: KOP is often considered the largest in terms of actual shopping space. While other malls may be larger in terms of overall square footage, KOP doesn't have an empty atrium, an amusement park, a skating rink, or a bowling alley. It's all shops.

I live about 10 mins from the place and can count on one hand the number of times I've been there in the last 10 years.

Tourist Trap adequately describes it. But it's a tourist machine, no doubt.

The MOA has several bookstores (most notably a nice Barnes and Noble).

For visitors: time your visit. Come Tuesday or Wednesday mornings for the best parking, best service, and fewest other shoppers.

For locals: The MOA stores are open one hour later than any other mall stores in the cities, so if you need a last-minute item after other stores are closed, (maybe a gift on a way to a party, or shoes on your way for a date), try the MOA.