What’s the secret King of Prussia knows that dead and dying malls don’t?

Source: PennLive, Candy Woodall

They know what you want before you walk through the door.

An app will tell you how to get to your favorite stores and what’s on sale.

You can leave your keys with the valet.

The concierge will make your lunch or dinner reservations – and order your movie tickets for later.

This is how commercial retail giant Simon Property Group has kept King of Prussia off the growing list of dead and dying malls in Pennsylvania.

A research and development division – the kind typically reserved for manufacturers and tech firms – is relied on by the company’s hundreds of malls, including 11 in Pennsylvania.

The new 155,000-square-foot addition opening Thursday at King of Prussia connects two malls that probably would’ve shuttered anywhere else by now if not for Simon’s focus on innovating.

King of Prussia isn’t just selling clothes and shoes. It’s selling an experience.

And it’s the latter that shoppers can’t find online, according to Simon Malls President David Contis.

The company invested $250 million to prove they’re right, connecting the old Court and Plaza to become one massive mall with a swanky new food court, Savor.

“You can’t eat on the internet,” Contis said.