I was speaking with a friend back home a couple of days ago, and she laughed when I said I was headed to the mall. I can’t say I blame her really. Anybody who knows me knows I am NOT a mall shopper. In fact, the most time I ever recall spending in a mall was during a couple of winters in Flagstaff, when the morning exercise group I sometimes attended, met early in the morning to work out in the mall before it opened. God forbid I actually had to enter a store for some reason. So the fact that I spend a reasonable amount of my time here in a mall during the day, could be in many ways well, just weird. Except that here it really isn’t.
The heat and humidity at this time of year prevents any sane person from participating in any outdoor activity midday other than boating (and even then only in an air conditioned vessel). So, those who have free time during the day (like yours truly) head to the malls. There are 53 malls here. I’m not kidding, I checked. There are 10 more currently under construction. Still not kidding. Some are huge, some are tiny, some have mostly Middle Eastern based stores and some have exclusively international designer boutiques. 
If you are actually going to shop, you will need to know what you want in order to know where you are going. Stores and brands aside, most of the malls have a few things in common. They mostly have a minimum of 3 stories above ground. All of them have many food outlets ranging from very nice (and pricey) to fast food. All of them have multiple nail and hair salons,
as well as at least one day spa offering massage, facials, and/or reflexology. There will usually be at least one fitness center. There will almost always be a large grocery store in the basement, and in many of them, the sub-basement has activities for everybody.
The activities they offer are as diverse as the malls themselves. The options range from outrageous (one mall in Dubai has an indoor ski slope, complete with ski and/or snowboard rental) to odd (a mall here has an indoor water park) to activities that normally take place outside. Here in Abu Dhabi you would go to a mall to go bowling, or play badminton, mini golf (even ‘night’ golf with glow in the dark balls), basketball, squash, or tennis to name just a few. My favorite indoor mall activity so far is the bounce house. 
Yes you read that right. It’s actually a bunch of trampolines set end to end and side to side that cover roughly the size of 3 football fields. There are also a few giant airbag things you can dive onto. They have separate areas with different sized trampolines and air bags for different age groups. Including adults. The ends and sides of the trampolines are well padded, the walls are padded or angled. I haven’t been yet, though it has been planned by one of the local meetup groups. Sadly they changed the date and I am going to miss the group trip this time. However, I’m considering going on my own just because it looks like a blast!
Other things you find in malls here that you don’t find in the US? Car dealerships, and that makes perfect sense. You can’t leave a new car out in this kind of constant heat, and constant sun, and expect it to look good for very long. You also can’t expect it to feel too good inside should somebody want to get inside. So far I have seen Mercedes, Lamborghini, Ferrari, and Audi dealerships inside malls. The Porsche dealership is in the hotel next door to ours. None of them have cars outside. I have not seen any other car dealerships anywhere, but then I’ve only been to 6 of the 53 malls. Not really working too hard on finding the rest at this point.
Photos top to bottom: Exterior of Marina Mall, escalators and elevators at World Trade Center Mall, rear of Abu Dhabi Mall, front of Abu Dhabi Mall, Exterior Al Wahda Mall, Interior shot of a small part of Marina Mall, Exterior Khalidiya Mall, Bounce!, and above is an interior shot of a small part of the interior of Abu Dhabi Mall. Each of these is a bit different looking to me. What do you think?