A shopping mall or shopping centre is a building or set of buildings that contain a variety of retail units, with interconnecting walkways enabling visitors to easily walk from unit to unit.
Strip malls are a recent development (from the 1920s), corresponding to the rise of suburban living in the United States after World War II. As such, the strip mall development has been the subject of the same criticisms leveled against suburbanisation and suburban sprawl in general. In the United Kingdom these are called retail parks or out-of-town shopping centres.