Black Friday 2017 At Woodfield Mall.

     The kick off to the biggest shopping season of the year, Black Friday, at the Woodfield Mall in Schaumburg, Illinois. Going to Woodfield is not just for the shopping, its an event, the largest, most popular mall in Chicagoland decked out for the season, filled with people that braced the cold to come out and be together. For years, my family and I take Thanksgiving to be together, and after dinner, we enjoy the night at Woodfield, the later the night goes on, the busier it gets.

     By this time next year, the Dining Pavilion will be open next to Sears. I do hope Sears will be here next year on the other hand. An elevator shaft is seen being erected to quickly take customers to the second floor, also to relieve escalator traffic.

Expansive view of physical commerce, malls are apparently dead I'm told.

Just take it all in, if your looking for Waldo, your going to be here a while.

Santa's ice castle is on the verge of melting at those temperatures.

This entrance will make a far better cover photo next year when the construction is completed.

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Target Closing 12 Stores; Two in Illinois.

     Unexpected, but not uncommon for Target to give an annual list of stores slated to close. A list not even close to the size of  what Sears Holdings routinely announces, but some communities will sure be at a lose without a red bullseye. Target is not on a downward spiral, they are opting to open smaller formatted stores with a richer selection and beginning to steer away from large selections. Opening several stores this years, and dozens planned to opened next year, the stores on this list are being cut as a positive business direction, I will explain why shortly.

Target is going in the direction to work together with its strong online presence, as the company uses there store locations as "distribution centers" for online order pick-up.


The stores slated to close by February 2018 are as followed:

Eastland Mall Harper Woods, Michigan

Hutchinson, Kansas 

Benton Harbor, Michigan

Macon, Georgia

Slidell, Louisiana

Lauderhill, Florida

Matteson, Illinois

Romeoville, Illinois

West Baltimore, Maryland

Far East San Antonio, Texas

     I cannot speak for the all these stores and how I believe there performance is to the company. The stores highlighted in yellow, I have shopped at and can judge on a general basis why there slated to close. The Benton Harbor, Michigan store not in a very good location, far from the mall, which is dead, and far from the major highway and other stores in the town. Crime is the demographic is key to this locations closure and the one in Harper Woods, Michigan. Matteson, Illinois is another location that is no longer located in a profitable area, retail is on a landslide in the town and Target leaving is only doing themselves a favor, and no one else, citizens of Matteson will now have to drive out of town for another reason to shop. 

     Romeoville, Illinois is a completely different story than the other three stores, its in a very calm, and pleasant community. This stores only problem is that it was built because Target could open it at a time it made sense. Opening around 2006, before the recession hit, this location and a few small stores were built across from a new Walmart. Target has several other locations only a few miles from this one in Bolingbrook, Lemont, and Joliet. This store, although serving Romeoville, people here will just have to drive a few more minutes to a neighboring Target.

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The Plaza In Evergreen Park Update: 11/2017

     Within the span of two year, the village of Evergreen Park and myself have watched the dead Plaza mall be transformed into the new Evergreen Plaza. Back in the summer of 2013, The Plaza closed with plans to demolish the current property and redevelop the land. Since demolition began in fall 2015, the existing Carson Pirie Scott remained open while the rest of the mall was being demolished, and a new Carson's was being constructed directly across the parking lot. Fast forward to fall 2016 and the new Carson's is open and a row of new stores are under development and the once sprawling mall is officially gone except the old Carson Pirie Scott store, that is being demolished across from new stores being built, out with the old, in with the new! By spring 2017, a fraction of the old Carson Pirie Scott building remains and all the new stores are starting to take shape on the once open land and auxiliary parking out used by the old mall

     Now that it is fall 2017, my wonders of what new stores will open are no more as I am surprised and excited to see what are the new shopping choices for the residents of Evergreen Park. A very small portion of the former mall is still standing, although not for long I am sure, and I an certain the existing Planet Fitness with relocate to a new storefront so there current location can too be redeveloped into new offerings.

Here is my original post of The Plaza featuring many photos from trips to the mall in March and July 2013.

Here is my post of the demolition proceeding in November 2015.

Here is my post of the redevelopment progress in September 2016.

Here is my post of the redevelopment progress in March 2017.

I see a new digital sign in the future of the new Evergreen Plaza.

 The last existing portion of the old Plaza, Planet Fitness is in the far distance and I am sure it will relocate to a new storefront in the coming months.

Usual modern shopping center size and several smaller stores waiting to be filled.

With so many stores opening along Western Avenue in the last few years, I couldn't imagine what this might be, my guess based on those two large pillars is Dick's Sporting goods.

Maybe Aldi?

  

Not really sure what chain has the strange architecture that yellow store has going for it, but the one next to it looks like the Container Store.

T.J.Maxx and Ulta Beauty have already opened...

Along with Petco, Five Below, and Designer Shoe Warehouse.

Looks like a very nice, modern shopping center and I cannot wait to see the rest of the stores once there open.

The property to the right in the photo below surely will be filled in with chain restaurants and smaller store's in the coming years. New to the Chicago area, Raising Cane's Chicken can be seen in the distance.

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45 Kmarts Closing; 18 Sears Closing After Christmas.

     Another Christmas season is among us, a time for shopping and cheer, and the deciding factor for Sears Holdings to pull the plug on its stores. Before Thanksgiving or black Friday, every Sears around the country has basically put everything on sale, tags hand written simulating those used for liquidation sales are hung with care throughout every Sears until Thanksgiving. Today Sears Holdings announced 63 stores are closing, 18 Sears and 45 Kmart's by late-January 2018.

     Formerly as an effort to off set expenses and increase profit, closing stores left and right came naturally to Ed Lampert, now statements from Sears claim this to be "an effort to "right size" its footprint". Whatever this means, it doesn't make sense to me, but you must have to work at Sears to know when there going to be the "right size".

According to AL.com, the closures bring the total number of Sears stores in the U.S. to about 680 locations, down from around 3,500 in 2010. There are now currently 610 Kmart locations in the U.S.

Here is the list of locations released directly from Sears Holdings.

Kmart:

Kmart 7200 Us Highway 431 Albertville AL

Kmart 1214 E Florence Blvd Casa Grande AZ

Kmart 26996 Us Hwy 19 N Clearwater FL

Kmart 6050 Highway 90 Milton FL

Kmart 901 Us 27 North Sebring FL

Kmart 156 Tom Hill Senior Blvd Macon GA

Kmart 144 Virginia Ave South Tifton GA

Kmart 1203 Cleveland Road Dalton GA

Kmart 3101 East 17Th Street Ammon ID

Kmart 1006 N Keller Drive Effingham IL

Kmart 2606 Zion Road Henderson KY

Kmart 230 L Roger Wells Blvd Glasgow KY

Kmart 501 Marsailles Road Versailles KY

Kmart 1300 Us Hwy 127 S Frankfort KY

Kmart 41601 Garfield Road Clinton Twp MI

Kmart 200 Capital Ave Sw Battle Creek MI

Kmart 2125 S Mission Street Mt Pleasant MI

Kmart 1547 Highway 59 South Thief River Falls MN

Kmart 2233 N Westwood Blvd Poplar Bluff MO

Kmart 16200 East Us Hwy 24 Independence MO

Kmart 1400 S Limit Avenue Sedalia MO

Kmart 3901 Lemay Ferry Road St Louis MO

Kmart 1130 Henderson Drive Jacksonville NC

Kmart 1292 Indiana Avenue St. Marys OH

Kmart 14901 Lorain Avenue Cleveland OH

Kmart 2830 Navarre Road Oregon OH

Kmart 4475 Mahoning Ave Austintown OH

Kmart 1249 North High Street Hillsboro OH

Kmart 3382 Birney Plaza Moosic PA

Kmart 2830 Gracy Center Way Moon Township / Coraopolis PA

Kmart 3319 North Susquehanna Trail Shamokin Dam PA

Kmart 22631 Route 68 Clarion PA

Kmart 1815 6 Ave Se Aberdeen SD

Kmart 530 Donelson Pike Nashville TN

Kmart 560 South Jefferson Avenue Cookeville TN

Kmart 1806 N Jackson Street Tullahoma TN

Kmart 655 Sunland Park Dr, El Paso, TX (Announced a few days prior to this list)

Kmart 4520 W 7 Street Texarkana TX

Kmart 4715 Nine Mile Road Richmond VA

Kmart 300 Towne Centre Drive Abingdon VA

Kmart 3311 Riverside Drive Danville VA

Kmart 2315 Wards Road Lynchburg VA

Kmart 111 Division St North Stevens Point WI

Kmart 800 Grand Central Avenue Vienna WV

Kmart 1287 Winchester Avenue Martinsburg WV

Kmart 301 Beckley Plaza Beckley WV 

Sears:

Sears 1701 Mcfarland Blvd E Tuscaloosa AL

Sears 5111 Rogers Avenue Fort Smith AR

Sears 4201 N Shiloh Drive Fayetteville AR

Sears Fiesta Mall Mesa AZ

Sears Greeley Mall Greeley CO

Sears 8020 Mall Pkwy Lithonia GA

Sears 1709 Baytree Road Valdosta GA

Sears Berkshire Mall Lanesboro (Pittsfield) MA

Sears 7885 Eastern Blvd Baltimore MD

Sears 1200 Us Rt 22 Phillipsburg NJ

Sears 2999 E College Avenue State College PA

Sears 300 Lycoming Mall Circle Pennsdale/Muncy PA

Sears 2334 Oakland Ave Indiana PA

Sears 4000 Sunset Mall San Angelo TX

Sears 4600 S Medford Dr Lufkin TX

Sears 754 S State Street Salt Lake City UT

Sears 114 Southpark Circle Colonial Heights VA

Sears 1400 Del Range Blvd Cheyenne WY 

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