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King of Prussia Mall


Temeteron

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Its very big and easy to get lost in for a first timer. Its probably just as bad trying to get there with the big US 202/I-76/PA Turnpike mess as well.

Once you are familar with the area roadways and the mega-mall, its definatly the place to bring a girl out. Shopping wise, does have a lot of things but for me personally, its not worth the 1.5 hour drive when there are 5 malls and a outlet (Six Flags Great Adventure) within 30 minutes of me.

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Lived in the Philly area for 19 Years and never once went there! :lol: Out of curiosity, how does it compare to Franklin Mills (which I visited occasionally)

Its very different. Franklin MIlls is mroe of the outlet style stores whereas KoP is more mid-market to really upper end (Neiman Marcus, Versace, Tiffany, Louis Vuitton, Hermes, Cartier, etc.).

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KOP is the biggest and best mall in the country if you really investigate it. Philly is lucky to have such a jewel. The Mall of America and that one in Edmonton claim to be the largest in the U.S. and the world respectively, but there is nothing bigger then KOP when you look at total retail sq. footage (much of the Edmonton and MOA is "empty" park space and indoor rollercoasters etc.) if the measure of a mall is the quality and quantity of retail space--which afterall is what we think of as a mall--then KOP is the gold standard for the world.

Pennsylvania as a whole is very underrated in its mall firsts and bests, Pittsburgh's mega malls have some world firsts of their own, and I am sure competing with KOP the Philly malls have had to be very innovative as a group.

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  • 1 month later...
  • 2 weeks later...

^^I have wondered why they didn't make it one mega mall as well with them being connected, at least by a tunnel or underground or skybridge type structure. Especially with those Pennsylvania winters. My only thought is that one was added on later or back in the day the designers didn't think that anyone would want to walk all that. Interesting if any one has the details on that. MOG is also very nice.

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KOP was concieved as two different malls reaching two different sets of customers. The Plaza was supposed to be the middle-market mall. The Court was the upscale one.

Demand was so high for space that The Plaza expanded and got substantially more upscale, and forged a stronger physical connection to The Court.

That's why, at least partially.

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What are some of your thoughts on this massive retail jewel? Some stores you would like to see come? Some stores you would like to see leave?

I don't know what to make of the KOP mall.I don't know if I love it or I hate it. I'd rather King of Prussia had 380 high end retail stores distributed around a defined downtown and not in an enclosed shopping glass box. I'm not a fan of shopping malls in general but I must say the KOP Mall success is absolutely insane.I know on a random Sunday or Wednesday evening when most malls are closed or near vacant, this mall 15,000 car parking lot is nearly full.

Incredible location as it sits on the border of Penssylvania's 2 wealthiest counties(Chester + Montgomery) and right on the doorstep of Chestnut Hill and NW Delaware County(Villanova Radnor Haverford etc)

I just don't like the direction the newer, wealthier sections of Philly's metro are going. The old Mainline towns are a treasure to behold, suburbia at its best. The new crap like KOP mall, Exton mall, sprawling corporate Chesterbrooke, $2 million dollar McMansions scarring the beautiful countryside. Its sad.

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^^I too long for some of the old colonial like towns and knowing that every 5 or 10 miles will be another different community in many ways, SE Pennsylvania has for decades now been the engine that has driven the Pennsylvania economy, so Harrisburg and the local politicos are loathe to put many barriers at all on development or what some may call destruction of the fields of SE Commonwealth.

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^^I have wondered why they didn't make it one mega mall as well with them being connected, at least by a tunnel or underground or skybridge type structure. Especially with those Pennsylvania winters. My only thought is that one was added on later or back in the day the designers didn't think that anyone would want to walk all that. Interesting if any one has the details on that. MOG is also very nice.

It was probably logistics. There simply wasn't a place to hook the two together.

The Plaza was the first to get built - back in the 1960's. It was truly a "plaza" in that it had a supermarket as well as mostly-down-scale stores and JC Penny as the only department store tenant (currently the only original tenant still at the mall - though not in its original location). The Plaza was continuously expanded over the years until the point where it was a partially-enclosed mall with Wannamakers (now defunct), JC Penny's, and Gimbel's as tennants. Then, when the need for more upscale development became apparent in the early 80's, it was decided to build a whole new mall which was to be separate and apart from the Plaza. This was to become the Court and had Macy's, Bloomingdale's and Abraham & Strauss as its anchors (A&S later closed and its spot was taken by strawbridge's; the old Wannamaker's later became a Hecht's which later became strawbridge's as well which led to a point in time when the mall had two strawbridge's - due to the lease not yet expiring on the one in the court). At the same time Sears was added to the Plaza.

Then came the 90's and the birth of upper end retail. The Court was already filled up and had no room to expand (due to its odd U-shaped layout) so instead of expanding it, the mall's owners decided to add onto the Plaza. Thus, the wing containing Lord & Taylor, Neiman Marcus, and Nordstrom, and all the smaller luxury stores that tagged along with them, were added to the Plaza. However, due to the position of Macy's, in the Court, there was no way to connect the two buildings (since doing so would require tearing down Macy's). Now, with the presumptive vacating of the Macy's spot due to the Federated-May merger, I suspect that the mall owners will build that connection.

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THe King of Prussia mall is O.K. I've been there about once or twice. IMHO, its nothing special.

In terms of having stores with luxury and enar-luxury goods, it is special since there are few malls with stors like Neiman Marcus, Versace, Tiffany's, Louis Vuitton, Hermes, etc. under one roof. Even tehn, msot of the malls that have those luxury stores don't have as many of them as King of Prussia AND don't also have more run of the mill palces like Sears, JC Penny's, Modell's, FYE, Old Navy, etc. under the same roof as well.

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In terms of having stores with luxury and enar-luxury goods, it is special since there are few malls with stors like Neiman Marcus, Versace, Tiffany's, Louis Vuitton, Hermes, etc. under one roof. Even tehn, msot of the malls that have those luxury stores don't have as many of them as King of Prussia AND don't also have more run of the mill palces like Sears, JC Penny's, Modell's, FYE, Old Navy, etc. under the same roof as well.

Every once in a while, I manage to shop at places like Tiffany's and Louis Vuitton and other "upscale" places like that. But, I don't NEED to shop at places like that to look good. I can shop a Sears, Old Navy and other "run of the mill" places (Northeast, Willow Grove) and still look gorgeous. I'm a middle class girl that doesn't have the kind of money to shop upscale all of the time.

So when I say its nothing special, I'm talking in regards to me and what I like.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Since I grew up 10 min from KoP, as a kid I never realized how massive it really was. It was always just the mall we went too. They have done some nice stuff to it lately (The Pavillion is a personal favorite) but when it comes down to it it still is just full of national chain stores.... If they brought in local merchandise and designers I would go there a lot more often... But that is obviously just wishful thinking. I'd rather support the local guys in the city and wherever else they still survive.

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