Closing big box stores leave big shoes to fill, but demand for retail still high, McHenry County officials say

Christina Norin, who lives in Delavan, Wisconsin, used to come to the Bed Bath & Beyond in Crystal Lake more often, though not as much anymore.

Norin and her daughter, Tara, were at the store this past week at least one more time, as the store has scored a pyrrhic victory to increase foot traffic: It’s holding an everything-must-go sale after announcing last week it was closing.

“I’m old-fashioned; I prefer shopping in person,” Norin said, adding she remembers shopping in Chicago with her family. “Amazon is OK, I guess, if you have to shop there. You have to move along with the times. But I want these places to stay around.”

The Crystal Lake location of Bed Bath & Beyond, along with the Best Buy in Algonquin, are both set to close in the coming weeks, the companies announced.

Best Buy said it would not be renewing its lease and is set to close on March 4, while Bed Bath & Beyond included the Crystal Lake location in its latest slate of store closures.

“Retail is not dead,” Crystal Lake’s director of community development, Katie Cowlin, told the Crystal Lake City Council and Planning and Zoning Commission during a recent joint meeting. She said high-end retail space was still very much in demand, in particular for restaurants.

Crystal Lake “continues to have a strong retail market,” Cowlin said in an email Friday, pointing to the city’s low vacancy rate of 4.6% and the decision of national chains – including Boot Barn, Guzman Y Gomez, Crumbl Cookies, Summer Moon, Ollie’s, Raising Cane’s, McAlister’s Deli and the Edge Fitness – to open locations in town.

Indicative of their name, closing big box stores leave a large building footprint behind, and some residents told the Northwest Herald they were concerned with what might go in as a replacement.

“Big box stores are on their way out, clearly, but what goes in their place?” said Blake Keeperman of Woodstock. “I’m still sad that Barnes & Noble turned into a Binny’s [in Crystal Lake].”

Lisa Cichonski of Crystal Lake has worked at large retailers including Meijer and Target and she said she felt the sudden loss of jobs when these stores close is an under-appreciated issue.

“The implications of closing down brick-and-mortar stores are horrendous,” she said. “When you take out the human component of shopping, it’s sad. I’ve had customers follow me from store to store, I’ve had employees follow me. Companies forget about the wonderful employees they are robbing of a job.”

Stefine Rayner of Carpentersville, who said she has worked as a manager for two major clothing retailers that closed over the past six years, said extra demands are being placed on both businesses and employees due to supply chain issues and inflation.

“Companies don’t want to pay the way they should for certain positions,” Rayner said. “People treat employees like crap now. And employees don’t want to put up with it, so places can’t get staffed. And online shopping puts a lot of places out of business. Unless something changes, it’s going to keep happening.”

Smaller businesses also have issues with staffing but benefit from campaigns to shop local, Algonquin/Lake in the Hills Chamber of Commerce President Jamie Griffiths said.

“I see us crawling further from out of the pandemic period every day,” Griffiths said. “A lot of people do seem to want to support smaller local businesses more than they used to in the past.”

While the Crystal Lake chamber doesn’t often deal with larger retailers, Crystal Lake chamber President Randy Leggee said he felt the city does a really good job being proactive in filling spaces.

In McHenry, city planners are working with an interested party to redevelop the site of a former Kmart as new retail space, Director of Economic Development Doug Martin said. While talks are preliminary, the site is no longer being considered for storage space.

“I think there’s a great demand for entrepreneurial businesses,” Martin said. “There’s not as great a demand for mid- to large-sized box stores, but we are seeing a lot of interest from smaller retailers. There’s a lot going on in the market.”

Within that past year, Mariano’s in Crystal Lake sold for $36 million, and major renovations are in the works for major shopping plazas like Algonquin Commons and the Crystal Court complex.

The Commons was purchased in 2021 by Red Mountain Group, which announced a $30 million revitalization effort for the mall. It was roughly a quarter empty at the time of the sale.

Crystal Court was in more dire straights prior to the city moving forward with redevelopment plans for a mixed-use development called Water’s Edge. The mall sat mostly empty for years, never recovering from its anchor stores moving out almost 20 years ago, officials have said.

Sarah Voska of Marengo said she hopes to see more struggling or abandoned malls revitalized.

“I’m sad I won’t be able to pick up that last-minute birthday present on my way to dinner,” Voska said. “But I’m not crying over big box stores [disappearing]. We should redevelop abandoned malls into spaces that inspire community, support affordable housing and are safe and accessible by public transport.”