I get really stingy with my lot sizes, so usually I do use spiral staircases or elevators. Now that I think about it though, my gym had an elevator and a 2-wide staircase and townies used the second floor all the time. That's a great thought! I will definetly make sure to give plenty of staircase room in my mall.
I do have midnight hollow and the collection. That's what gave me the idea! I also have that Asian stove and it can be placed on commercial lots. These items give me exactly what I need to make a realistic mall. I usually prefer to make community lots. My sunset valley is bare right now cause I demoilshed everything
My ideal mall would have 2.5 floors (a frieze in between the two), food court, restaurant, book store, nectary register, consignment, elixir consignment, maybe general goods, maybe relics, toy store, and carousel. It would be amazing if I could include a small greenhouse and an art store, but with only two floors on a medium lot, I don't think they will fit.
The frieze would hopefully enable me to place a roof over the carousel that would be visible inside the building. The area around the carousel would be open from the second floor. So sims could go to the frieze level and eat a pretzel while watching their kids play. I don't actually have a pretzel machine, but that would be awesome...