I was born 1982 and went to this mall all the time in the 90’s instead of woodfield mall. It was always packed. I remember watching The Santa Clause and other movies back when the theatre was split up, under the main escalators 1st floor and the 2nd floor off to the left when you first walked in the main doors. I remember the clairs store right at the front entrance too. I remember the mall being so alive and full of people, shopping, eating, talking, laughing and most importantly no cell phones. The age of heading out to puchase your items is saddly coming to an end. I feel like I lost an old friend with the closing of Stratford Square. You will be missed but never forgotten.
I just went there in December and me and my mom were the only ones there . Sad.. in the childrens car things I saw writing saying “we miss the old mall”
Stratford needs to be owned by Simon. Malls like the Aurora and Rosemont outlet and Woodfield mall are doing great because of them. Woodman’s is opening up soon, but is not connected to the mall at all. I hope we can get Stratford back up on its feet someday.
An update if you're curious: I just came here yesterday for the first time in about 8 years. I needed to quickly find a few extra birthday presents and didn't want to pay the taxes at Woodfield, plus it's closer to the house.. so why not? Everything is closed. The theater is gone/they pulled all the signage, movie posters and registers from the box office, Kohl's sealed it's mall entrance, I still can't get over that the carousel is gone for good and Burlington is one level now, Round1 is gone, there's like 3 spots left in the food court. Red Robin and B&BW are open but were devastatingly empty. The Potted Penguin, Furry Babies, The Escape Room, Victoria's Secret, The Children's Place, you name it, it's not there anymore. A few of the remaining stores like Fun Flatables that are open, weren't and had their gates shut. Their mall map and website are terribly out of date but shows the upcoming Woodman's on the map layout so that to me tells me just how rapidly the mall is declining. There's a horrible mold smell going down the escalator by the Sears wing down to FYE and when I looked up at the ceiling by Sears it had a crack and some pretty bad water damage on the ceiling panels. So many closed escalators and blocked off staircases. The fact alone that Auntie Anne's is gone, meanwhile you're waiting 20+ minutes at Woodfield to get one pretzel and a drink. It is absolutely crazy. And it was SO HOT in here!! Hate to think how freezing it is on a cold day especially during our signature Illinois winters. All the stores we went into had very limited inventory, the store with the most diversity and stock was by far FYE and honestly a lot of it was overpriced filler with sections dedicated to what was on sale. Not even Hot Topic here has much to offer for merchandise. I did end up getting something at Hot Topic and FYE but I have to laugh at the shoebox size storefront that is Claire's, this mall has the most pitiful Too Cool and smallest Claire's I have ever seen. I was with my mum and she ended up being the one who found a good and price conscience pair of Grogu pants at FYE while I finally found a cute vinyl pin at HT, and I am so grateful cause walking around this place felt like purgatory and I'm even more grateful I didn't waste my time or leave empty handed. Walking around this place feels like it's never ending into pure nothingness. It is so, so sad. I couldn't and still cant believe it. The architecture is so beautiful in this mall but the property is visibly on it's way to falling apart. Namdar truly seems to be the final nail in the coffin.
I moved out to the suburbs back in 2002. My mom and I would come to this mall often. I still remember there would be a lot of people here. I was here a while back, and it’s just unbelievable as to what has happened to this mall.
As a kid in the 90s I admired this mall because it had 6 anchor stores like Marshall Fields, Carson’s, JC Penney, Sears, Montgomery Ward, and Kohl’s. All of which my mom shopped at. I agree things started going downhill in the 2000s and seeing a video like this makes me sad. If it closes I will miss it a lot.
It's May 2024. Stratford Square Mall is permanently closed and I believe they're going to demolish it and rebuild something like Oakbrook Mall so the future looks kind of bright🌞 I guess.
This reminds me of Randhurst mall in 2000's in Mt. Prospect. There were so many stores closed mostly upstairs, the food court upstairs were all pretty much closed except McD's and Boardwalk Fries.
This mall opened up in about 1981-1982. Remember when it was brand new. Most of this area around the mall was a open land near Army Trail & Schick at that time of opening.
That's funny we were just there and I was surprised arcade closed I have $100 play card. Oh well. You should also go to Charleston Mall in West Chicago off of North Avenue can you check out Pheasant Run.
Sucks too see this mall like this now I was just there yesterday and more places have shut down have alot of great memories with my kids out there before all this pandemic stuff such a great mall appearance wise inside to be failing i hope slowly they can grow don't want to see this mall close one of my favorites for sure
Yeah I'm not understanding some stores. They want to make sure that customers are spread out but yet they corral customers through one entrance so it's more crowded. Kohls isn't doing doing good for the malls that they are in.
You know a mall is going downhill when they have a Boost Mobile store. Is Woodman's going to have a mall entrance? Namdar, Moonbeam, Kohan and Hull are the four horsemen of the mallpocalypse. It's a shame what Namdar is doing to this mail. Stratford Square never seemed to be a bustling mall, but the vacancies now are shocking. Is Too Cool gone? I used to love shopping there. Stratford is looking like Collin Creek before they started demolishing it. This makes me so sad.
Well a lot. I would like to see like Tyson's corner, and king of Prussia, any mall with a boscovs. Somerset would be good. I still want to get to a lot of the st Louis malls.
@@mallaholicretailadventures Any malls in Chicago you have still yet to do? I still need a few more like Westfield Old Orchard and Gurnee Mills just to name a few.
They need to either reopen Round1 and Cinemark (and put in some other fun new places) or put this place out of its misery. Literally no reason to come here anymore.
I read 100,000 chain stores have closed up shop in this single year. Sure Namdar is partially to blame but this pesky global crisis sure ain't helpin either lol
Love your content but let me ask you this how are these owners still around when none of them are making money? Also how do u go about finding out who owns these malls i live near Lincoln mall an our town is thinking of making it into a casino 🎰 🤔
The most traffic this mall had in the last 4 years was when they turned the dead Italian/Japanese/??? restaurant into a polling place back in November. The saddest part is seeing the trolley parked... my kid loved riding that trolley around, we even had a punch card with a few rides unused.
Cause I’ve lived next to Bloomington basically my entire life and go there all the time and I’ve heard of bloomingdale a few times but never gone. So to me it’s a rip off
I was born 1982 and went to this mall all the time in the 90’s instead of woodfield mall. It was always packed. I remember watching The Santa Clause and other movies back when the theatre was split up, under the main escalators 1st floor and the 2nd floor off to the left when you first walked in the main doors. I remember the clairs store right at the front entrance too. I remember the mall being so alive and full of people, shopping, eating, talking, laughing and most importantly no cell phones. The age of heading out to puchase your items is saddly coming to an end. I feel like I lost an old friend with the closing of Stratford Square. You will be missed but never forgotten.
I hope this mall stays open. Its vey nice.
I just went there in December and me and my mom were the only ones there . Sad.. in the childrens car things I saw writing saying “we miss the old mall”
Stratford needs to be owned by Simon. Malls like the Aurora and Rosemont outlet and Woodfield mall are doing great because of them. Woodman’s is opening up soon, but is not connected to the mall at all. I hope we can get Stratford back up on its feet someday.
I used to work at stratford mall in 1984 in the food court. Sad to see it in this shape.
An update if you're curious:
I just came here yesterday for the first time in about 8 years. I needed to quickly find a few extra birthday presents and didn't want to pay the taxes at Woodfield, plus it's closer to the house.. so why not?
Everything is closed. The theater is gone/they pulled all the signage, movie posters and registers from the box office, Kohl's sealed it's mall entrance, I still can't get over that the carousel is gone for good and Burlington is one level now, Round1 is gone, there's like 3 spots left in the food court. Red Robin and B&BW are open but were devastatingly empty.
The Potted Penguin, Furry Babies, The Escape Room, Victoria's Secret, The Children's Place, you name it, it's not there anymore. A few of the remaining stores like Fun Flatables that are open, weren't and had their gates shut. Their mall map and website are terribly out of date but shows the upcoming Woodman's on the map layout so that to me tells me just how rapidly the mall is declining.
There's a horrible mold smell going down the escalator by the Sears wing down to FYE and when I looked up at the ceiling by Sears it had a crack and some pretty bad water damage on the ceiling panels. So many closed escalators and blocked off staircases. The fact alone that Auntie Anne's is gone, meanwhile you're waiting 20+ minutes at Woodfield to get one pretzel and a drink. It is absolutely crazy. And it was SO HOT in here!! Hate to think how freezing it is on a cold day especially during our signature Illinois winters.
All the stores we went into had very limited inventory, the store with the most diversity and stock was by far FYE and honestly a lot of it was overpriced filler with sections dedicated to what was on sale. Not even Hot Topic here has much to offer for merchandise. I did end up getting something at Hot Topic and FYE but I have to laugh at the shoebox size storefront that is Claire's, this mall has the most pitiful Too Cool and smallest Claire's I have ever seen. I was with my mum and she ended up being the one who found a good and price conscience pair of Grogu pants at FYE while I finally found a cute vinyl pin at HT, and I am so grateful cause walking around this place felt like purgatory and I'm even more grateful I didn't waste my time or leave empty handed. Walking around this place feels like it's never ending into pure nothingness. It is so, so sad. I couldn't and still cant believe it. The architecture is so beautiful in this mall but the property is visibly on it's way to falling apart. Namdar truly seems to be the final nail in the coffin.
Looked like a great Mall too. While the other one is packed?
Love me some Stratford Square. My old “downtown” being from Carol Stream ♥️
I moved out to the suburbs back in 2002. My mom and I would come to this mall often. I still remember there would be a lot of people here. I was here a while back, and it’s just unbelievable as to what has happened to this mall.
As a kid in the 90s I admired this mall because it had 6 anchor stores like Marshall Fields, Carson’s, JC Penney, Sears, Montgomery Ward, and Kohl’s. All of which my mom shopped at. I agree things started going downhill in the 2000s and seeing a video like this makes me sad. If it closes I will miss it a lot.
It's May 2024. Stratford Square Mall is permanently closed and I believe they're going to demolish it and rebuild something like Oakbrook Mall so the future looks kind of bright🌞 I guess.
This reminds me of Randhurst mall in 2000's in Mt. Prospect. There were so many stores closed mostly upstairs, the food court upstairs were all pretty much closed except McD's and Boardwalk Fries.
Great video btw and I love how you talked about what this mall is going through etc!!
Yeah. It's going through a lot of challenges right now.
This mall opened up in about 1981-1982. Remember when it was brand new. Most of this area around the mall was a open land near Army Trail & Schick at that time of opening.
I wish everyone a safe and healthy, Happy happy 2021 / Say So long good bye to 2020 🎉🎉🎉🍾🍾🍾
Yes. Thank you. Happy New year
honestly, it's a nice looking mall too! So much potential!!
Cool video! Thanks for revisiting and making a video, ur subscribers really appreciate it!!
Thank you. It needed to be done again. In was shocked how in a years time it's looking like this.
That's funny we were just there and I was surprised arcade closed I have $100 play card. Oh well. You should also go to Charleston Mall in West Chicago off of North Avenue can you check out Pheasant Run.
There is also a round one at fox valley in Aurora and north riverside park mall.
@@markmatuga2595 thanks, I'm saved Hallelujah. Now my card won't go to waste. Thanks again
@@davekent20 you’re welcome.i wish you a very blessed 2021.
Sucks too see this mall like this now I was just there yesterday and more places have shut down have alot of great memories with my kids out there before all this pandemic stuff such a great mall appearance wise inside to be failing i hope slowly they can grow don't want to see this mall close one of my favorites for sure
This mall was the go to mall in the 80's and 90's... They never recovered from the year 2000.
Yeah and since I filmed this 2 week's ago, the theater threw in the towel and Kay jewelry closed. 2 WEEKS
I really think they’re trying to get tenants to leave so they can close it down.
It is sad to see malls in such decay.
Kohls did the same thing at Spring Hill. It's amazing how bad Stratford has gotten in the last few months.
And also at Golf Mill and Harlem Irving Plaza
Yeah I'm not understanding some stores. They want to make sure that customers are spread out but yet they corral customers through one entrance so it's more crowded. Kohls isn't doing doing good for the malls that they are in.
I really dont want this mall to go down since I've been going here since I was a kid.
Beautiful mall. Hopefully this could probably become a mix of current tenants and some office space or something.
I did a revisit about a week's prior to yours, poor mall is going down hill every single day
I did so much work to this property
You know a mall is going downhill when they have a Boost Mobile store. Is Woodman's going to have a mall entrance? Namdar, Moonbeam, Kohan and Hull are the four horsemen of the mallpocalypse. It's a shame what Namdar is doing to this mail.
Stratford Square never seemed to be a bustling mall, but the vacancies now are shocking. Is Too Cool gone? I used to love shopping there.
Stratford is looking like Collin Creek before they started demolishing it. This makes me so sad.
I was asking myself just that when I drove by earlier today. I have a feeling woodmans wont have a mall enterance but that's just a guess
Woodmans won't have a mall entrance. Too cool is still open. They seemed busy.
Stratford needs to be owned by Simon. I don’t want to see this mall go down.
What's that Center Stage Dance thing, is it open and did it occupy JCP?
Dance studio and it was weibolts/penneys
The arcade used to be a Steve & Barry's
I was shocked that round one closed
Did they remodel their ceilings? I seem to remember the ceiling being brown and dreary. It looks so much brighter.
Them skylights give off good sunlight when its sunny. The ceilings are still brown but i love the aesthetic. One of my favorites even if its dying.
This mall would probably have better maintenance if it were owned by Brookfield Properties Group.......
Did you see the old Disney Store entrance?
Yes
What are some malls you would like to visit someday? I would love to see Somerset Collection in Troy, MI.
Well a lot. I would like to see like Tyson's corner, and king of Prussia, any mall with a boscovs. Somerset would be good. I still want to get to a lot of the st Louis malls.
@@mallaholicretailadventures Any malls in Chicago you have still yet to do? I still need a few more like Westfield Old Orchard and Gurnee Mills just to name a few.
They need to either reopen Round1 and Cinemark (and put in some other fun new places) or put this place out of its misery. Literally no reason to come here anymore.
So sad. This mall has a lot of character.
I read 100,000 chain stores have closed up shop in this single year. Sure Namdar is partially to blame but this pesky global crisis sure ain't helpin either lol
Love your content but let me ask you this how are these owners still around when none of them are making money? Also how do u go about finding out who owns these malls i live near Lincoln mall an our town is thinking of making it into a casino 🎰 🤔
I find out on Wikipedia or the mall website has the owner somewhere.
@@mallaholicretailadventures awesome thanks so much for responding 😀
What is strada?.
I actually don't know.
Strada was an Italian restaurant/wine bar.
Thank you.
@@mallaholicretailadventures: You're welcome.
Some restaurant that almost immediately went out of business
go check out golf mill mall
Too many malls have vacant stores now. All because of Amazon and others.
The most traffic this mall had in the last 4 years was when they turned the dead Italian/Japanese/??? restaurant into a polling place back in November. The saddest part is seeing the trolley parked... my kid loved riding that trolley around, we even had a punch card with a few rides unused.
Hey Mall Ahlloc I hate to say it but one of my close friends on RUclips has the virus so I can't really focus on these videos right now :/
I'll keep them in my prayers.
I hope he or She feels better soon ❤️
@@Mrcruisefever1 my close friend is Xtreme Tours Pro he tested positive a few days ago and now he is in quarantine
@@DalmationProductions hope he's feeling better soon
@@pilotgrrl1 he told me he's doing fine he took a temp check and it went down to 98.4° instead of 100°
Bloomingdale sounds like a rip off Bloomington. On another note shame this mall is dying. I actually kinda like malls.
How is blooming a rip off of Bloomington? Two different cities.
Cause I’ve lived next to Bloomington basically my entire life and go there all the time and I’ve heard of bloomingdale a few times but never gone. So to me it’s a rip off
Well, like a rip off
How is a city a “rip off” of another city?