Literally nobody is going to do this. Most of the traffic at the Mall is transfers of employees, not shoppers.Once they open the outlet mall on the red line I think you may have a lot of people from the MOA wanting to take the red line to the outlet mall and if it only comes every 30min might be a rather long wait. Although when everything gets built i'm sure it would be rather easy to just increase the frequency if the demand is there.
What about the MOA during the holiday season, and finding parking is a nightmare! Shoppers could easily park at the outlet mall visit the stores then continue north via the red line to continue shopping! Also when the phase 2 of the MOA is completed there will be much more high end stores which visitors may also want to visit the outlet mall (provided MOA allows them to advertise inside the MOA)
Also call me insanely optimistic but with two stops on the red line with HUGE attractions (MOA and the outlet mall) Also Apple Valley station will be within a block or two distance from Cub Foods. 147th St. station will be near Walmart and many other smaller shops. Also I'm hopful that around Lakeville/cedar station they will build very dense residential projects and southward there is a lot of space for development. Granted this line on the south side may not truly be urban living given the long distance from downtown. However low income housing along this line could be nice for residents who could live on this transit line and be able to shop at cheap places (cub foods, walmart, goodwill, dollar tree, savers ect ect.) yet still have access to downtown and major shopping places like MOA and the outlet mall. rent prices currently in apple valley are pretty cheap!
I think this project eventually is going to be a great "suburbia-urban lifestyle choice" meaning for families struggling to make ends meet they can continue to keep have/rent a large townhouse for there big family have yard for the family dog and still be able to have easy access to a grocery store and be able to commute to work. Also having access to the MOA and downtown all without even having to have a car!
I know many people here don't like to think about a non urban way of life however I think this project is really more about encouraging people who would otherwise not consider riding public transit. perhaps a more cost effective option could have been throwing bucks of glitter at existing buses? Either way now that they invested in such a expensive project they need to build the housing to create the demand for the well soon to be existing red line.
And yes, it will be the next best thing to sliced bread! Discount high end merchandise people on a budget just LOVE that stuff <-- "tears of joy"