Central Americans still love their malls

The age of the shopping mall has peaked and closures have begun in the United States and Europe as shopping moves from bricks and mortar to the computer screen.

The trend toward electronic shopping is much less evident in Central America but development of malls has lost some momentum.

Only a couple of days ago, the Guatemalan developer Del Río opened the San Gabriel mall in El Salvador with an investment of $10 million, but the pace of such inaugurations has slowed markedly, say retail sector analysts.