Sharing the Westfield Century City mall in Los Angeles with a grocery store (Gelson's) doesn't seem to bother Tiffany & Co. but the jeweler draws the line at H&M getting too close. The LA Times reveals that Tiffany has sued its landlord at the Westfield Century City shopping center saying that a planned H&M would violate the terms of its contract. Tiffany's contract with Westfield forbids retailers that are not considered to be "luxury, upscale or better by conventional retail industry standards." to use or lease certain spaces within, fronting or adjacent to the Tiffany store. The lawsuit alleges that the location of the H&M store so close to Tiffany will cause "irreparable injury to Tiffany's business reputation as a luxury retailer."

The LA Times keenly points out that in Pasadena along Colorado Boulevard, the H&M store and Tiffany are very close to each other. Also, while H&M is a low-priced retailer, the store's focus on trendy style isn't offensively downmarket. Tiffany's lawsuit seems to imply that the H&M shopper and the Tiffany shopper are such separate people that they don't mingle or that somehow a person who buys a $19 sweater instantly becomes a Tiffany undesirable. It seems an odd distinction for a brand that had spent the last couple years reaching out to the aspirational consumer and bumping up its line of silver jewelry in order to attract new customers. Certainly there is a gap between a silver necklace and a $19 sweater but these days plenty of malls and shopping centers feature both expensive stores and lower market ones reflecting today's affluent shopper who often purchases at both ends of the spectrum.

Even though the economy is grim, big malls are opening around the world. I recently mentioned the opening of the Westfield Mall in London and now the Dubai Mall has officially opened boasting the largest number of retailers in the world. As I mentioned earlier this year, the mall boasts an aquarium and an ice rink in addition to rows and rows of stores -- an astounding 1200 stores, in fact. The mall is hosting a series of high profile events including fashion shows and performances to celebrate the opening. The mall is seen as a destination and has an adjoining 5-star hotel, The Address, Dubai Mall. So far only half the stores are open but eventually it will be home to some of the world's most famous retail chains. The developers of Dubai Mall have predicted 30 million visitors in the first year a number that some fear is a bit optimistic given the current economic picture. Check out the gallery below for some scenes from opening day including the amazing aquarium.

Bloomingdale's has announced their first overseas location and it will be in one of the biggest shopping centers in the world, The Dubai Mall. The Dubai Mall will have two Bloomingdale's stores, a a three-level clothing store of about 146,000 square feet and a one-level home goods store of about 54,000 square feet. The Dubai Mall, which is set to open this fall, has an aquarium/discovery center, a gaming center and an ice rink. The Bloomingdale's stores won't open until 2010. Take a look at the renderings for some of the Dubai Mall's key features in the gallery below.

Now of course all seasoned shoppers know that it's not the size of the mall that counts, but the size of the sale and the quality of the selection -- but overseas shopping malls are bigger and badder than ever. The Chinese especially seem to love their enormous shopping centers, as China has by far the majority of the world's largest malls -- including the world's single biggest: the South China Mall. Located in Dongguan, China the South China Mall opened in 2005 and has a whopping 7.1 million square feet of leasable space. And although it might be considered the largest in the world, I'm not totally convinced. With wind mills and theme parks taking up some of that space isn't that cheating a little? I mean, how much square footage of actual shopping does it have?

40 million square feet of shopping...okay, stop drooling. It's no joke, though. Dubai is in the development stages of planning the world's largest shopping zone, complete with several different malls and both underground and on-street shopping areas. It will also all be linked to Bawadi's 31 hotels for easy access and convenience for all the millions of shoppers they're hoping to attract.

No word on when exactly this massive project will be completed, but as motivated as they seem to be over there to attract tourists I'm sure they're not going to waste any time!

Dubai has its fancy malls, now Bahrain is getting a new shopping paradise. The Moda Mall will be an ultra high-end shopping complex located on the ground floor of two 50-story twin towers which are shaped like sails. The mall hopes to offer a luxury shopping experience comparable to those in Western fashion cities such as London, Milan and Paris, The mall will house 160 boutiques. The garden courtyard will sit beneath a glass dome and will be connected by a glass enclosed spiral staircase and elevator to a Sheraton Hotel. The mall will be set to open next year. Bahrain certainly seems to be following Dubai's lead, first a project of manmade islands, now a massive mall which uses a sail as a design them (much like the famous sail-shaped Burj Al Arab).