Thursday, March 21, 2019

Sears-Oakbrook Center-Oakbrook, Illinois


The Sears at Oakbrook Center opened in 1962 which was similar to lots of Early 60's Chicago area Sears stores like Golf Mill, River Oaks Center and Park Forest. This Sears was 3 floors and even had the new logo till General Growth which owns this store with Sertigate Growth Properties with now General Growth now Brookfield Properties Retail Group owns entirely. In 2017, they found a tenet which will open later to take the 2nd and 3rd Floor while Sears will still operate on the 1st Floor which would mean they wouldn't have a mall entrance. Unlike most renovations, Sears decided to close the store for about a year to renovate it and make it new unlike most downsize by Sears. The store is currently 60,000 Square Feet featuring Appliance, Mattress, Tools, Shoes and Clothing but no jewerly, auto center, electronics and other small stuff carried in other Sears stores like Toys and a home department. Lampert mention in his plan for Sears of what Sears plans to look like and this store was the prototype for future Sears downsizes. Let's take a look.

 The New Look

 Working On The Replacement For Most Of This Sears

 The Newer Sears Logo which debuted in 2010

 Heading Towards Tools And Christmas

 Tools

 Advertising For The Sears That Reopened. Even though it reopened 3 months ago.

Another Look At The Main Entrance

 The Yes! Oak Brook is clearing a marketing ad

 Clothing

 Look To The Main Entrance

 Everlast, My Personal Favorite Sears exclusive for clothing

 Woman's

 The Search Bar meant for ordering things online, I have seen employees use this at the Bloomingdale Sears to help customers find tools

 Merchandise Pick-Up, the earlist of the Pick-Up Merchandise idea used by many retailers these days

 Treadmills

 Shoes, you can see the checkout in the distance

 Mattress Land, don't really understand why a store this small needs such a big mattress department

 More Shoes

 Mattress And Appliance are next to each other

 This store also has a huge treadmill area as well

 This is alot of treadmills, lots that people wouldn't even buy

 The Shop Your Way Welcome Center is basically Customer Service but psychically for Shop Your Way members

 There the checkouts with Thank You! Oak Brook. Updated Kmart stores have got Thanks sign also mentioning the city the Kmart is located like Norridge, Elmhurst and Bridgeview.
 Christmas Department, this is where I bought alot from the day I was there

 More of the tools

 The Appliance Department in this location looks similar to the Sears Appliance and Mattress stores that they've been trying out.

 Yes! Oak Brook


 This is the only Sears to have designated entrance and exit locations. This is the where shoppers exit.

 And This Is Where Shoppers Enter





While Lampert has talked about getting rid of clothing at Sears, this store while has a small selection of products still does get the job done for being a Sears store. If this store is the route that Sears decided to expand on, I wound't mind especially with the fact that clothing would still exist, which is what I mostly buy from Sears. Hopefully that this would be in the Sears of the future, only that they really should have kept a mall entrance to keep traffic continuing. But if Lampert decided to take clothing out of Sears, I'm certain that it would be worst, most of Sears shoppers that I see buy clothing. It really would be a huge part gone and would most likely be a huge mistake for Sears. Stay turn for more Sears, Kmart and malls here on Midwest Retail.

4 comments:

  1. Nice photos! This remodel turned out well. Let's hope it's not the only one.

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    1. Thanks! That is hope that more of these remolds are on the way.

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  2. Yeah, Sears needs to be consistent with remodeling. That's one reason for their struggles.

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    1. You're right. The only remolded that is consistent is the Seritage downsizes and even there inconsistent on products carried. North Riverside, IL carries clothing and has a Sears Auto Center while Columbia, MD doesn't carry clothing expect for Lands End and Madison, WI West doesn't have a auto center. It was very inconstant which is why most have closed like Columbia, MD and Madison, WI West and many more.

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