Apple Store Permanently Closing at Struggling Mall in Chicago Area

[MacRumors]

Apple is permanently closing its retail store at the Northbrook Court shopping mall in the Chicago area. The company confirmed the upcoming closure today in a statement, but it has yet to provide a closing date for the location.

Apple Northbrook opened in 2005, and the store moved to a larger space in the mall in 2017.

Apple confirmed that affected employees will continue to work for the company.

"At Apple, we're always focused on providing an exceptional experience for all of our customers," said Apple. "With the evolving redevelopment plans at Northbrook Court Mall and the departure of several retailers, we have made the difficult decision to close our store there. We've loved serving the Northbrook community for nearly 20 years, and our valued team members will continue their roles at Apple. We look forward welcoming customers at one of our eight Chicagoland locations, as well as on Apple.com and the Apple Store app."

The news was first reported by Crain's Chicago Business.

Northbrook Court is considered to be a dying mall, as it has lost several major retailers over the past few years, including Lululemon last month.

Apple also permanently closed its Infinite Loop and Royal Hawaiian stores early last year, but it has also opened several new stores around the world since then, including at the Miami Worldcenter, The Exchange TRX in Malaysia, and elsewhere. Apple also announced that it will soon be opening a store in Downtown Detroit.

Article Link: Apple Store Permanently Closing at Struggling Mall in Chicago Area

 

[WilliApple]

The death of malls is still happening sadly...
Its quite sad... Hopefully we can see a revival of malls in the future.

 

[BGPL]

This was a beautiful mall and strangely just vacated over the years. This place seemed to face the decline of "brick and mortar" shopping more than others, but this will be a thing of the future where the zoomers and some millennials will do all of their shopping on their phone.

 

[sevoneone]

Have any of the stores Apple has opened in the past 5 years been inside a mall? Or have they all been free standing?

The death of malls is still happening sadly...
Its quite sad... Hopefully we can see a revival of malls in the future.

Seems to be a lot of experimenting with taking malls, or land once occupied by malls and building mixed use areas with residential, retail and commercial space that are highly walkable. I am hoping they find a formula that works. The US needs affordable housing options badly.

 

[applesouvenirs]

Have any of the stores Apple has opened in the past 5 years been inside a mall? Or have they all been free standing?


Seems to be a lot of experimenting with taking malls, or land once occupied by malls and building mixed use areas with residential, retail and commercial space that are highly walkable. I am hoping they find a formula that works. The US needs affordable housing options badly.

Apple Del Amo opened inside a mall last year.

 

[WilliApple]

Have any of the stores Apple has opened in the past 5 years been inside a mall? Or have they all been free standing?

The only one I can name is Apple American Dream Mall in New Jersey, however I don't keep track. Just happened to have watched a video about American Dream Mall in NJ.

 

[Johnny907]

Not just struggling but dealing with rampant, often violent, shoplifting.
There’s an entire subreddit full of stories coming from that location, so I don’t blame Apple for closing shop.
Losing money is one thing, but not being able to guarantee the safety of your staff is a whole nother.

 

[Johnny907]

This was a beautiful mall and strangely just vacated over the years. This place seemed to face the decline of "brick and mortar" shopping more than others, but this will be a thing of the future where the zoomers and some millennials will do all of their shopping on their phone.

So funny thing: we have a couple large malls here in Anchorage, and while both have been slowly declining one of them has experienced a sort of revival in the last couple of years thanks to COVID and some thoughtful remodeling done by the mall owners. They opened up formerly closed in feeling parts, added more seating and table space plus trendy music and free WiFi across the entire complex. Now shopping there in the late afternoon/early evenings it feels like when I was a teen in the 90’s again: full of tweens and teens talking, window shopping, sucking down frappes and hot pretzels by the basketful. I think groups still want to congregate, you just need to provide what they’re looking for.

 

[realeric]

All malls in my state have been declining. People don’t go to mall anymore. Instead, mixed use developments are uprising. A Apple store in the mall moved to the mixed-use shopping center.

 

[oldMacGenius]

This mall was very poorly located on Lake Cook Road… the mall was on the boundary between Lake county sales tax (6.25%) and the Cook county sales tax (8%). Apple was on the wrong side IIRC.

I’ve spent time working in every single store in Chicagoland except for Northbrook. Having had many colleagues rotate in and out of that store, their entitled customer horror stories were enough to respectfully decline to pickup shifts there. Sorry y’all, I chickened out.

Still, an Apple Store is a close knit community of workers and the final days are going to be very hard days for everyone.

 

[Mitochris]

Have any of the stores Apple has opened in the past 5 years been inside a mall? Or have they all been free standing?

An Apple Store opened in a mall last year in Stockholm, Sweden.

 

[xmlninja]

The death of malls is still happening sadly...
Its quite sad... Hopefully we can see a revival of malls in the future.

Why? Malls were never a good solution in the first place.
I’d rather keep buying with next day deliveries and avoid overcrowded public places

 

[Big_D]

It is interesting, but malls never really took off over here. I think there is a small one about an hour away in Lingen, but I can't think of any others in the area.

I guess it is that, while Germans love their cars, they aren't car centric. They have lovely, picturesque pedestrianized town centers and people would rather walk into town, or catch a bus or train, than drive an hour out of town to find a mall.

That we don't have many zoning laws, or at least they are wildly different to the USA, probably helps as well. Residential areas all have bakeries and most have convenience stores or small supermarkets, so people can shop on foot for the essentials. The same for restaurants, there are often small local restaurants mixed in among the housing, so you can walk there to eat, then walk home. The big chains are then mainly in the center of town or at autobahn stops.

We have a German, Balkan, Chinese, Thai, Vietnamese, Greek and 2 Turkish restaurants and a burger bar within easy walking distance, plus 4 bakeries, 3 ice cream parlours and 2 cafés, the local McDonald's is about a 10 minute roundtrip by car, I haven't been there is over 15 years, the burger bar serves superior burgers and is 2 minutes walk from the house... And McDonald's is the only US-chain restaurant in the town, Subway opened up a few years back on the outskirts, but they survived for about 3 months, before they closed up shop.

The only one we drive to is KFC, which is about 20 minutes away in the city next door, we used to drive there maybe once a month, but that has dropped off to once or twice a year over the last 6 years or so. It just isn't worth the effort, the food isn't better than what we get locally and it is more expensive that good quality fresh food from a "proper" restaurant...

 

[contacos]

It's quite sad how the new generation will never experience the fun it was to hang out at a mall after school together to socialize. Now kids just sit isolated at home and send each other TikToks while waiting on their food delivery. Damn I sound old!

 

[Nicj56]

It's quite sad how the new generation will never experience the fun it was to hang out at a mall after school together to socialize. Now kids just sit isolated at home and send each other TikToks while waiting on their food delivery. Damn I sound old!

It is that I lived in a small town, but I also hang outside with friends and socialize. Nowadays they hang inside in front a PS5 or something... Which is sad to see. Now I also feel old.

 

[mansplains]

This mall was very poorly located on Lake Cook Road… the mall was on the boundary between Lake county sales tax (6.25%) and the Cook county sales tax (8%). Apple was on the wrong side IIRC.

I don’t wanna know the sales tax rate for Tim Cook county

 

[The-Real-Deal82]

Shopping centres all over the World are likely struggling at the moment and have been really since about 2008. In the UK we have lost some huge brands in revent years, multi-billion pound groups. I am sure we are all guilty of preferring to order things online.

I have to say, any Apple Store I have walked past or been in is hell on earth usually. Just packed out with people crowding around the tables and probably buying very little. To this day all my Apple purchases have been online and the only time I have used an Apple Store was when my iPhone 5 stopped reading the sim card and they replaced the phone for me. My wife has used them a few times for similar reasons. I like to shop around and make sure I am paying the right price, so never blindly just bought something in a physical Apple Store.

 

[TechRunner]

We have a mall about 40 minutes from me in Sarasota, FL that still enjoys good traffic and impossible parking during the Christmas season. But that's definitely propped up by tourists and seasonal residents. They have a nice Apple store, too.

 

[davide_eu]

It is interesting, but malls never really took off over here. I think there is a small one about an hour away in Lingen, but I can't think of any others in the area.

I guess it is that, while Germans love their cars, they aren't car centric. They have lovely, picturesque pedestrianized town centers and people would rather walk into town, or catch a bus or train, than drive an hour out of town to find a mall.

That we don't have many zoning laws, or at least they are wildly different to the USA, probably helps as well. Residential areas all have bakeries and most have convenience stores or small supermarkets, so people can shop on foot for the essentials. The same for restaurants, there are often small local restaurants mixed in among the housing, so you can walk there to eat, then walk home. The big chains are then mainly in the center of town or at autobahn stops.

We have a German, Balkan, Chinese, Thai, Vietnamese, Greek and 2 Turkish restaurants and a burger bar within easy walking distance, plus 4 bakeries, 3 ice cream parlours and 2 cafés, the local McDonald's is about a 10 minute roundtrip by car, I haven't been there is over 15 years, the burger bar serves superior burgers and is 2 minutes walk from the house... And McDonald's is the only US-chain restaurant in the town, Subway opened up a few years back on the outskirts, but they survived for about 3 months, before they closed up shop.

The only one we drive to is KFC, which is about 20 minutes away in the city next door, we used to drive there maybe once a month, but that has dropped off to once or twice a year over the last 6 years or so. It just isn't worth the effort, the food isn't better than what we get locally and it is more expensive that good quality fresh food from a "proper" restaurant...

I would understand how it's possible to downvote this post.

 

[cosmichobo]

Amazon.

Temu.

Aliexpress.

Bricks and mortar are not coming back whilst entities like those continue to grow.

Small business is going to become a thing of the past. How on earth can you compete with these big boys.

 

[Isengardtom]

I prefer lively city centers with shops around nice pedestrian areas instead of the 13 in a dozen bland malls you see everywhere in the US.

Just a personal preference

 

[mac-imperator]

I'm sure that Apple has been in front of the possibility of "the mall" being a dying "rally point" for shopping and leisure and will be moving on to "Plan B".

 

[currocj]

It is that I lived in a small town, but I also hang outside with friends and socialize. Nowadays they hang inside in front a PS5 or something... Which is sad to see. Now I also feel old.

I remember going to the mall to go to the Arcade to play video games with quarters. Those were the days.

Signed,
Old man

 

[decafjava]

Amazon.

Temu.

Aliexpress.

Bricks and mortar are not coming back whilst entities like those continue to grow.

Small business is going to become a thing of the past. How on earth can you compete with these big boys.

That really sucks, we can choose somewhat though with inflation and the fact wages have not kept up is really going to mess things up. Yes I order online sometimes, but often try to buy from small shops. Wearing a sweater I found by change on sale while on break during our class study trip two weeks ago in a small Swiss town of all places. Plus tourists like shopping, Monastiraki in Athens comes to mind.

 

[pp_amorim]

The death of malls is still happening sadly...
Its quite sad... Hopefully we can see a revival of malls in the future.

I hope not, the world is better without malls. Open space stores are the way to go. It works in Europe it should work in America.