The majority of the stores inside the mall will have gates that are either broken, or gates that simply won't work. In others, the security gates will work, but the stores with working gates are usually set far apart from the ones where they simply won't, and the bigger stores (like the department stores, for example) gates just aren't there!

For the ones that do have them, they'll be rusted, and it'll be a struggle to pull them down - so while they will work, in order for it to usable characters will have to find the key to properly lock it.

And if they come across a security gate that needs to be fixed up, they can fix it, provided they find the tools inside the mall to do it. They'll need to do proper maintenance to make sure it continues to work, because - who knows, it might break again! There's also no promising these gates won't break if something (or someone) were to attack them as a result of the rusting.