This is our walkthrough of the Morgantown Mall in Morgantown, WV from July 3, 2020. This is the mall that spelled the end for the classic Mountaineer Mall, just a few minutes down the road. Morgantown Mall was situated in a spot that served both the northern West Virgina market, but also drew business away from formerly successful malls in Pennsylvania, like the shuttered Washington Mall or the Franklin Mall (now called Washington Crown Center). Originally developed by the Glimcher Co., it's seen its fair share of tribulations these last couple of years, with 3 of its anchor spaces closing in fairly rapid succession. Belk closed towards the end of 2017 and is currently being changed over into an Ollie's Bargain Outlet. Elder Beerman closed in August 2018 along with its parent company, The Bon-Ton and has been since changed over to a Dunham's Sports. Sears closed in October 2018 and has not been filled with a new tenant yet. From this scenario we can get a picture of the current owners, Washington Prime Group (a subsidiary of Simon Property Group), trying to get a handle on this exodus by smartly replacing these vacant anchor spots with stores that are suited to the demographic for the area. It appears to be a successful tactic, because the mall is still pretty active and thriving, despite its problems, and especially with a comparison to the other formerly more successful mall down the road, Meadowbrook Mall. Meadowbrook Mall was a quite sleepy place later that same day...
Songs used in this video (in order):
The Rippingtons - She Likes to Watch
Steve Gray - Wonder Groove
Steve Gray - Reach Out
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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, KZfaq, any platform gets it out there and preserves it for posterity. We can't paint this picture unless we all grab a brush...
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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!
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