Welcome to Lost Departments! A channel primarily covering retail store closures and dying malls that is based in Chicago.
As the world of department stores and malls collapses around us, I feel like it's important to preserve them in a video somewhere for years to come. Looking back at places where people once shopped, worked, and hung out means a lot. I'm hoping to present the history, the architecture, and some memories of everyday places that we forget about until they're gone. I try to be fair in my commentary about these businesses covered on my channel with the goal to not just slander them, I don't want my videos to hurt.
There is no schedule for uploads, this channel is strictly a hobby for me and generally falls to the bottom of my priorities when life is just too much. It's all dependent on an increasingly busy schedule. Anyways, thank you for checking out the channel, I really hope you enjoy my videos!
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LostDepartments Will you do a tour on Olive Garden on Dundee
I remember back in 2006...when MACYS said it had to give up the FIELDS brands and names, because they could not support another branding. Yet, they do it with Bloomingdales. They bought them out in 1994...about the time they bankrupted MACYS. MACYS did not "acquire" all of those department stores...they bought out the competition...and then ran it into the ground.
Now the entire mall is closed.
When Godiva closed there I haven’t been there since. First it was Hershey’s across the street, then Ghiradelli Chocolates across from Hershey’s, and finally Godiva; it was a great chocolate shopping area.
I wonder how Yorktown Mall is doing after watching this.
Wow, looks so different from the last time I was there when I lived in the area.
Haven’t been to Fox Valley in years, wonder how empty it is now. I’m sure Lois Joliet Mall is emptying out to.
I worked at this CPS store along with HIP, Ford City and Orland Park. YT was my last store before I changed fields. i really haven't shopped at many department stores after I left Carson's. I met so many great people there.
Love this mall. It just became super ghetto now…
Wow it looks so clean in this video! It's garbage now with major plumbing and flooding issues now.
Hope you don't mind if I comment on this video now! I always like your content and rewatch it.
Glad to see you are rewatching!!!!
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Thanks. Carson’s is a store I really miss.
Im like carson 🌹
I worked at this store in the mid 2000s in the auto tire center. The inventory control wad horrible nobody ever checked the shipment received against the packing list. I worked hard and i got a 100% customer satisfaction rating and a pin to go with it and all the other employees were amazed at that. I finally left because i couldn't stand working o such a messed up system.
I am from the UK and went on trips to Chicago 4 times between 2002-2004 to visit my then girlfriend and now wife of 21 years. During each trip (usually lasting 2 weeks) we would go into Hip Mall several times. My wife lived in Logan Square and her family are still there but told me its changed a lot. I imagine most of the shops have changed but I remember we would go into a Spencer's Gifts. My wife moved to the UK in 2003, we visited a year later in 2004 but have not been back since, have 3 children so very expensive flights. I would like to go back for nostalgia but fear its not the Chicago I remember. Thanks for posting.
You should definitely go back! I've been living in Chicago since 2021, while things are not perfect it's definitely not earned the reputation it seems to get in the news.
@@LostDepartments We just watched this video - kzread.info/dash/bejne/oYaH2NSTedG1dag.html and my wife commented how much HIP Mall has changed. She pointed out the jewellery store near the foot court that we got our wedding rings (different company but same location). There was no upstairs other then parking and there was no Target. My wife does not want to go back and says it would ruin my memory of the Chicago I knew as its all changed. Do you know if there is a shop Spencer's Gifts in HIP Mall still? It sold board games and geeky things.
2k subscribers! Great job!!
Thanks!!!!
This place is a portal to a new dimension. Bathrooms disappear and reappear in different areas. Ghost town spots that are fully stocked. I was left lost in this place last summer when I was in town to see The Cure.
I go in here every few months and they're always changing something slowly finding ways to make it worse...
Honestly I like Merle hay Mall that has 2 floors instead of 1 but sad that they closed which it suck and it’s sad that stores are closing and replaced them with random things or creatures which is the part that I’ve hated more
😢😢😢😢
I remember first day opening was great so many people Everytime I went. Years gone by and the last thing I did their was volunteered at the insanity haunted house we were tearing down the walls I was the last person to take the elevator then the security guard shut it down. You just shown where we had the haunted house by the Cinema 18 entrance
You don't have any footage of the Carson's at Fox Valley do you? I'm looking for that glass elevator and the blue and white tile in the basement or maybe that was Marshall Fields in the basement I don't know
Nope unfortunately, but it does sound like you are perfectly describing Macy's.
This mall eventually look like nearby Ford City . Ok in daylight but a bad element at night and weekends. Very few in the area still go there . Haven’t been there now in 7 years. Been evening shooting there in parking lot. Wouldn’t want my children there anything. Most BDubs are mostly adults. The one here is mostly teens from nearby Oaklawn HS . The Panera closed . Panera never closes unless unprofitable. When I went there I saw vagrants coming in with cubs and helping themselves to sodas . The once mobbed Connie’s pizza closed there. The movie theaters were once nice and neighborhoods kids went on weekends , now no one in area attends there much. One violent situation there and it’s over. Most of the stores are junk stores and cater to the bizarre tastes of extreme youth. In the 80s and 90s a favorite of local people. When the locals leave, you’re toast. Many in those south suburbs like Oaklawn, Burbank, Chicago ridge, bridgeview, Bedford park now go to nearby countryside to shop . Lagrange too. Oakbrook is most bustling outdoor mall closest to shop at. Even Orland square becoming a crime area in parking lot, and in mall. Ridge mall will never return to the period before 2000. When junk stores like cologne knockoffs, kids jump and fun, and discounted crap stores enter the malls, it’s in decay !
ill miss it
If Simon Malls buy the mall, it would do better business.
We have got to chat sometime. I love this video! Thank you for taking the time to make this. My name is Robb. I grew up in Carpentersville and worked at the mall during high school. Hope to hear from you. GREAT JOB with this video. 😀
It's 2024 the mall is permanently closed😢 so I believe the city of Bloomingdale bought it and it might be up for demolition if the rumors are right☹️
No that's what's happening
This was a very Nice SEARS Store. I came here not too often, but they had a nice selection of Mens Jeans, Dockers, Nice formal sweatshirts, and had a nice selection of Formal wear like Suits & Ties and Dickies merchandise.
Great video. Subscribed! May I ask what camera you shot this on?
DJI Osmo Pocket
At 6:31, this was actually kind of real when it came to the Sears store in the North Riverside Park Mall. Back in December of 2017, my mom and I were shopping at the Sears store and they had the holiday blowout event, but at the same time, the first floor was looking empty as many parts of the store were temporally walled off, other clothing racks were clustered, and it was very messy in there. We actually thought that Sears was closing at the mall permanently due to what it seemed like. When we asked one of the employees, they told us they were going to remodel and downsize the store, yet because this fake liquidation event was going on and the store was downsizing, it felt surreal, I'll never forget how empty the first floor was.
This Mall Unfortunately Declining since the early '00's.
Thank You for All your hard work put into these projects and videos. Im very Sorry to see this place Go, and despite never shopping here, Its Always Tough having to drive by any large vacant business, as peoples Livelihoods are affected. 😔👎 It be Cool to see uploaded videos of what Springhill was when it Opened or rthrough the Economic boom of the mid 90's. Anyhow, Thank You. 😎👍🏻
Thank You for the Video, great History Rundown and Music. Did Barnes & Noble and Khols both Leave right after this video was made and were there any stores or food stands left for any of 2023❓️🤔 😔 to see this Finally Permanently CLOSE.
I started coming here in 1973 when it was a bustling plaza . Then they built a mall over it. One of the smartest malls around. Very family friendly, the original Walgreens still there and mall expanding, set up so when things fail , quickly replaced . Funny thing is so many people speaking different languages. Spanish, polish, Russian. You can find soccer jerseys there which are hard to find in most stores .
Making our youth even more isolated as depression ruining the young.
Love the Century Landmark theaters , they’re better than all the rest but sadly both this location and Evanston location closed. Theaters that used real butter on their popcorn.
The mall center court is fantastic . Wood fields center nit as nice.
Came there from Oaklawn and preferred it to Woodfield which was too hectic especially in the center area.
Wasn’t the wrong location but online and big box killed it. Went there from 1994-2004 and bustling, after that steadily downhill. Last there before Covid Fauci quack destroyed so much, practically everything.
I hate that Namdar ruined this mail! I used to live down the street and went there often. Moved out of state in 2016, so i wasn't around to see it decline further. Thanks for doing this.
Thank you for this follow up video of Stratford Square Mall after its closure 2 wks ago. And giving us a little narrative on the several factors like Namdar’s mismanagement of this mall that may have contributed to its demise. Stratford Square Mall is one of the most beautiful and aesthetically appealing malls I’ve ever seen. I’m so glad to see more and more people are documenting this beautiful mall. Iconic for its architecture. It will undoubtedly be remembered by the fond memories it brought to the community and its iconic beauty. There are no longer malls or structures built with this type of architecture and design today. Since the closure of the mall I’ve been enjoying a buffet of videos paying tribute to this mall. I’ve watched a new video on this mall being uploaded almost daily. It’s my binge watch before I go to sleep. Peace! 😎
Its been cool to see how many video have been made about this mall recently!
I didn't even know the mall existed. I thought it was a boring strip mall because of the word plaza.
It is a mistake to move totally away from indoor shopping centers. Sure the selection and convenience of shopping online can't be matched by physical locations. But that isn't really what we are talking about. Amazon didn't shut down all of the malls. They build new outdoor shopping centers to replace them. Well the weather isn't always nice for outdoor strolling. They just totally ignore that factor. There was a reason for indoor shopping centers in the first place.
Yeah, exactly. Just because department stores are dying didn't mean that malls had to as well.
I don't know if its harder to see a mall die quickly or die a slow death. Either way, we miss them all. Every year it seemed I got a new video saying how this mall lost yet another anchor, and it's sad to see that it finally has sunk. I hope the village can at least preserve some of those gorgeous lamps while starting a new chapter on that parcel of land. Thanks for the dedication over the years for documenting this wonder of a mall!
I watched some of my older videos about the mall before editing this. I'm so proud of the work I did to document its demise through the years.
@@LostDepartments As you should be! 😊
Great Work on these videos and just like Springhill, it's 😔 to see these places, or any place of business, Shut its doors.
I left the Midwest Chicago Burbs area of LaGrange where I moved back to the West Coast, Los Angeles,CA. While living in the Midwest from 1992-23, the Malls I attended were Oakbrook, WOODFIELD, OLD ORCHARD, GOLF Mill, Riverside Mall, and the HIP. Has GOLF Mill Closed Yet❓️🤔 It's been on its last leg for a while now and last time there, I did a walk thru to see its latest condition back in 22, and I'd be shocked if it's not received the wrecking ball treatment.
@@williampavichevich4877 shockingly Golf Mill is still open.
The mall died because of Namdar.
I am so sad this mall closed. I think it is too beautiful to tear down. I hope Bloomingdale can find a way to reuse this building 🥲
Me too!!
My mother took me to Strapford Square on a regular basis back in the 1980's. I believe the last time I walked around the mall was the early to mid 1990's. I moved out of the Chicago area some time ago. I sad to see the mall shut down.