August 11th
Today, thirty years ago, a really big mall opened. How big you might ask? It has a theme park inside. The Mall of America is located in Bloomington, Minnesota, and is considered one of the best tourist spots in the state .It is also the largest mall in North America. It has like 500 stores. I can't even name that many.
[EDITOR’S NOTE: To be fair, at least five of them are a Cinnabon.]
But yeah, they have a theme park. They call it Nickelodeon Universe and the whole shebang is themed to the children's network formerly known as Pinwheel. There are actually two Nickelodeon Universes, with a second in New Jersey, but the Minnesota park is older and I think it has more rides. The Minnesota park was also originally themed to the "Peanuts" comic strip. Nowadays it has rides themed to a bunch of Nickelodeon shows, mostly cartoons. That being said, if you are really into Ninja Turtles or SpongeBob, you might want to go to Minnesota.
No bigger bastion of consumerism than the Mall of America.