After nearly 20 years, Apple is permanently closing its retail store in the Northbrook Court shopping mall in the Chicago area. The Cupertino firm on Tuesday confirmed the location is closing, but has not yet announced a closing date for the store.
The Apple Northbrook location opened in 2005, moving to a larger space in the mall in 2017. News of the impending store closure was first reported by Crain’s Chicago Business.
Apple also announced that the employees at the closing location will continue to be employed by the company.
Apple confirmed that affected employees will continue to work for the company.
“At Apple, we’re always focused on providing an exceptional experience for all of our customers,” said Apple. “With the evolving redevelopment plans at Northbrook Court Mall and the departure of several retailers, we have made the difficult decision to close our store there. We’ve loved serving the Northbrook community for nearly 20 years, and our valued team members will continue their roles at Apple. We look forward welcoming customers at one of our eight Chicagoland locations, as well as on Apple.com and the Apple Store app.”
Northbrook Court is considered to be a dying mall, losing several major retailers as well as smaller stores over the past few years. Lululemon closed their store at the mall just last month.
The Apple Northbrook location is the third location Apple has closed over the last year or so. Apple permanently closed its Infinite Loop and Royal Hawaiian stores early last year. That said, Apple is in no danger of shutting down its entire chain of locations, as it has also opened several new stores around the world since then, including at the Miami Worldcenter and The Exchange TRX in Malaysia. Apple earlier this week confirmed it is opening a store in Downtown Detroit later this year.
