Philadelphia Retail with PlazaACME

Today is part 2 of our 2017 Trip up the Schuylkill. We'll be passing through Pottsville (not to be confused with Pottstown), and stopping at the wonderfully out-of-date Cressona Mall along the way! Pottsville, like most towns in this part of the state, started out as a coal mining town. As the demand for coal has fallen, many of these towns have started to dry up. Pottsville is no exception, its population is a little more than half of what it was at its peak in 1940. Despite that, they still have a major employer and tourist draw- they are home to Yuengling, the oldest and second largest American-owned brewery. It's my favorite normal (for lack of a better term- just whatever category you'd stick Coors/Bud Light/Miller under) beer. Most Pennsylvanians agree with me there. Cressona Mall, Pottsville, PA Unlike Vanity Fair, this mall is actually pretty well covered (that's 3 links!) by the mall community. It first opened in 1974, anchored by Woolco, Hill's, an...

Today we're kicking off a series of posts I'm particularly excited for. This was my first annual trip up the Schuylkill River to check out the PA Coal Region retail scene. There's some good stuff coming up that I'm sure you've heard of from other content creators, but first let's check out a dead outlet mall that really didn't get the attention it deserved. Vanity Fair Outlet Center, Wyomissing, PA Prior to becoming the brand known as Vanity Fair today, the company went by Reading Glove & Mitten Manufacturing Co. These buildings were their factories and were built in the first couple decades of the 1900's. In 1970, after the huge success of a surplus merchandise tent sale, the company's president decided to turn the recently decommissioned knitting mills  into an outlet store. Vanity Fair itself took up the two main buildings, while a side building and former administration buildings were leased out as mall space for other brands that wanted...