Tears as final store at a once-bustling Illinois suburban mall closes: 'There goes my childhood'
The final store at a once popular suburban mall will shut its doors for the final time this spring.
The imminent closure of Kohl's at Spring Hill Mall in the West Dundee suburb of Chicago sounds death knell for the once bustling shopping center.
Classic noughties movies like Mean Girls portrayed shopping malls as bustling hives of teenage social life and as a destination for shopping trips.
At the time, they were - and had been in the nineties too. But since the movie's release in 2004 malls have been in rapid decline.
The Kohl's is one of two dozen locations being closed by the company nationwide.
The closure, which is expected to have taken place by April, will finalise the sad demise of Spring Hill Mall.
The mall officially shuttered last spring with just the Kohl's and a Cinemark holding on.
Fencing even sprang up around the mall with just access to the Kohl's and Cinemark remaining.
Spring Hill Mall in the West Dundee suburb of Chicago officially closed last Spring
Demolition of the main building began in the summer and the Cinemark has been acquired by the new owners.
'It just makes me sad that my childhood keeps disappearing!' one local lamented on Reddit.
'I used to take my oldest son and walk around this mall when he was an infant and toddler... this really triggered some nostalgia,' another wrote.
'There goes my childhood,' a third added.
'We always take these decisions very seriously,' Tom Kingsbury, Kohl's chief executive officer, said of the location closures.
'As we continue to build on our long-term growth strategy, it is important that we also take difficult but necessary actions to support the health and future of our business for our customers and our teams,' he wrote in a statement.
Kohl's employees affected by the closure have been offered a 'competitive severance package or the ability to apply to other open roles at Kohl's,' according to the company.
The Wisconsin-based retailer is closing 27 locations across 14 states.
Ten of the closures are in California, while the others are in Alabama, Arkansas, Colorado, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Texas, Utah and Virginia.
The retailer operates about 1,150 stores across the nation and the closures will account for less than three percent of its locations.
The mall was once a bustling center of shopping, dining and socialising
Demolition of the mall began in the summer with access to Kohl's and Cinemark kept in place
The heydey of shopping malls in the 90s and early 2000's has given way to 'retail apocalypse'
Like many department stores, Kohl's has been suffering from dwindling sales amid the stratospheric rise of online rivals and the demise of America's suburban malls.
Macy's is among the many retailers closing stores as the ongoing 'retail apocalypse' forces brick-and-mortar locations to grapple with rising theft and shrinking profit margins.
Up until mid-December, US retailers have shut 7,300 stores - up nearly 60 percent from 2023.
The most recent big retail bankruptcy was Container Store, which filed for Chapter 11 protection on December 22.
Earlier that month, Big Lots said it was beginning 'going out of business' sales at all its stores across the US, after filing for bankruptcy in September.
The company initially said it was closing all its 963 remaining locations, after a sale to a private equity firm fell through - but has since found an investor that should keep between 200 and 400 open.
Meanwhile, a recent report showed how malls are changing. Americans are increasingly visiting malls in order to eat, rather than to shop, new data has revealed.
The Cheesecake Factory and newcomer Din Tai Fung have been named the top mall brands this year, according to analysis by reviews site Yelp.
Casual dining and quick-service restaurants make up 17 of the top 25 mall brands, it found, with only a handful of homeware, clothing and beauty stores thrown in.
Classic noughties movies like Mean Girls portrayed shopping malls as bustling hives of teenage social life and as a destination for shopping trips.
But now it seems that food and dining are becoming an anchor for mall visits, rather than an afterthought after a long day of shopping.
The data also showed that the number of food and restaurant businesses in malls across the US is growing, with locations increasing by 7 percent between 2019 and 2024.
