Exton Square Mall - Raw & Real Retail

This is our walkthrough of the Exton Square Mall in Exton, PA from December 24, 2018. This is a mall that has fallen on hard times the last few years. The side of the mall where Boscov's and the former JCPenney resides is quite dead, with less than half of its stores occupied. The other half of the mall near the food court is quite busy, with most storefronts occupied. The entirety of the first floor of the vacant JCPenney is taken up with a Round 1 entertainment center, which often is the sole reason for many to visit this mall. Being that Round 1 has exterior access, often people never find a reason to go into the mall itself. We visited twice during the holiday season, this footage being from the 2nd on Christmas Eve. Foot traffic in this mall has increased dramatically during this holiday season, and it remains to be seen if this will keep up in 2019. If so, this could be another comeback story for a mall that was very nearly doomed. EDIT: nearly a year later, and this mall is far worse than it had ever been. Our assessment when this video went up is totally off the mark, and, following a recent health department scare, Exton Square is very nearly dead today. Songs used in this video (in order): Roger Webb - Metro-Active Lalo Schifrin - Moonglow & Theme from Picnic Lalo Schifrin - Dragonfly Roger Webb - Flying Objects Alamaailman Vasarat - Vasaraasialainen ------------------------------- I'd like to say a few words about being an ambassador to your local malls. We have been taking the time to visit all the malls within a reasonable driving distance to check up on them and see how they are doing. Also filming an updated video every year or so, regardless of the lack of many changes, just so there is a video record of the health over time. We think this is an important thing to keep tabs on, especially in these wildly turbulent times. The current health emergency has accelerated the impending Retail Apocalypse we've all been talking about these last several years. This was already a big problem, but the shutdowns and restrictions have made the issue 5x worse and likely hastened the death of the enclosed shopping mall. I know we've all been on pins and needles wondering how bad the fallout is going to be from all of this. There really is no way to know exactly unless we ALL go and do our small part to make it known how it turns out. I implore you, if you have the means to pick an area you would like to be an ambassador for, and go document your local malls. Whatever your medium, it doesn't matter, any and all documentation is necessary and vital in this day and age. Whether it be on Social Media, Flickr, Youtube, any platform gets it out there and preserves it for posterity. We can't paint this picture unless we all grab a brush... ---------------------------------- We utilize the value-for-value model here at RRR. Our product is free, and we're not asking you to pay for it. If you received value in any way from watching RRR, you can help us by donating, if you feel like it. Any little bit helps us to keep corporations and advertisers out of the decision making process. Your donation will keep us ad-free, and in turn, it will give us the opportunity to get to more far-flung locations to help tell this tale of retail instability. This is a non-profit project and every penny will go back into the gas tank for future trips!   / rawandrealretail   ITM