Playground Pier Mall (Pier Shops at Caesars) - Raw & Real Retail

This is our walkthrough of the Playground Pier Mall, formerly known as The Pier Shops at Caesars in Atlantic City, NJ from September 15, 2020. This is a very dead mall on the Atlantic City boardwalk built on a pier that extends over the ocean. We visited this mall about 11 years ago, and it was a bustling upscale place with plenty of traffic and lots of shops. Now it sits very nearly vacant, with the current health emergency sealing its fate. Even just since then, the restaurants on the third floor have checked out and Victoria Secret has left. The situation with the restaurants may be temporary, though, as NJ required exclusively outdoor seating or take-out for restaurants at that time, and that's not possible inside of that space. It feels strange walking around this space, since it very much feels like it is a closed property and you shouldn't be there. The first and second floor wings leading to the impressive synchronized fountain display are both closed off, with a wall on the first floor and a curtain on the second. The fountain was covered up back in 2015. All in all, it was a very spooky experience, and so the mood I tried to set for the ambiance in the tour reflects that feeling.


Songs used in this video (in order):

Steve Martin - Atlantic City
Klaus Schulze - No Coward Soul Is Mine
Klaus Schulze - Ghost Of Forever
Klaus Schulze - Mindphaser
Syd Dale - Latin Belle
Le Grand Orchestre De Paul Mauriat - Le Peintre Des Étoiles
Steve Gray - Wonder Groove
Steve Gray - Reach Out


This property has been subject to an already massively in depth treatment elsewhere, so rather than pasting some Wiki info or an article here, 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, 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!

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