The Mall, Your Smartphone, and You

Misonzhnik says that, whether the general public knows about it or not, almost every retail mall in the U.S. has an app now. Apps provide discounts, give users games to play and updates them on mall events:

"Today, more than 33.3 million U.S. consumers engage in shopping-related activities using their mobile devices, reports Experian Simmons, a Costa Mesa, Calif.-based research firm. Those figures are bound to rise with the advent of smartphones, which already make up 40 percent of all mobile phones in the U.S., according to data compiled by the Nielsen Co., a New York City-based research firm. Given that U.S. has about 302 million mobile phone users in total that is equivalent to more than 120 million potential shoppers."