Lehigh Valley Mall - Raw & Real Retail

This is our walkthrough of the Lehigh Valley Mall in Whitehall, PA from May 11, 2021. This is the big thriving mall in the area, owned by Simon Property Group. It was developed by the Kravco Company of Philadelphia in 1976 and it proceeded to kill off all the smaller malls in the area over time. It is located literally across the street from the older mall in the area, the Whitehall Mall. That mall has since been demalled and only a small corridor remains. Once Simon Property Group got full ownership back in the 90s, they proceeded to remove most of the charm of the mall and severely whitewash the color tones. All the fountains were removed, a spiral ramp replaced with an elevator, dark tiles replaced with shiny marble, the usual blandening methods you typically see in renovations. Despite all this, the mall has thrived over the years, and continues to do so. On any given weekend LVM reminds one of mall days in the past, when you can't find a parking spot and have to drive around and around looking for one. We've visited this mall 2 or 3 times and never filmed because the traffic flow in the mall was too thick for filming. This last visit turned out to be an anomaly, as there weren't too many people at all at the mall.

This tour was recorded on May 11, 2021 at around 5:30pm.


Songs used in this video (in order):

Dave Koz & Cory Wong - Together Again
Mikolaj Hertel - Swiatlo W Srodku Nocy
Mike Moran - The American Dream
Mladen Franko - Wind In Your Hair
David Marriott, Jr. - On the Seventh Day
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 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 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...


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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!

  / rawandrealretail  


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