We didn't have malls in the 70s and 80s in South Africa, and I'm a little older than you. So, from about the late 60s through the 70s, it was the high street. I love the high street, and I've never taken to the Malls the way I loved the high street.
Thankfully, the high street will never go away in London, and when I went to live in London (1975), it was Oxford street and all her glories that I was drawn to. I was back in London, briefly in March, 2020, just as the pandemic came down.
I'm in Portugal now (Lisbon), and there are three malls. I haven't been there yet, but strangely enough, I'm looking forward to it.
In San Diego, I loved Mission Valley and Fashion Valley and used to go there a lot. Not so much the Gaslamp mall. The Grove in LA was always fabulous, but it was different to your normal walled in series of shops.