Home Care In Bloomingdale, IN

Real Estate

Before the demolition of Stratford Square Mall, Bloomingdale leaders rolled out a bold new vision for redevelopment, complete with a birds-eye view of a central lake, restaurants, residences, a remaining department store and a spacious event lawn.

A little more than a year later, that future is taking shape.

Stratford Square, an enclosed mall dating to the 1980s, has been flattened, setting the stage for “The Grove at Bloomingdale.”

Instead of getting lost in a maze of windowless stores and endless mall parking lots, newly released renderings and the overall site plan for “The Grove” show a pedestrian-friendly, open-air mix of dining or entertainment, commercial or retail and gathering spaces. A large lawn area could host concerts, bag tournaments, a seasonal farmers market or winter ice skating. The parking is closer to the action, and the paths meander.

In the latest milestone, the village has announced a key development that will help bring it all to life.

The owner of the Naperville Yard plans a similar indoor sports and family recreation complex roughly northeast of Kohl’s, now a free-standing store.

What’s more, well-known regional restaurant groups have taken an interest in joining “The Grove” dining scene. A developer is also eyeing “The Grove” for a 280-unit luxury apartment complex as part of the first phase of the project.

“The obvious hope is that what we're creating there now allows you to replicate your experiences when it was Stratford in just a different way,” Bloomingdale Village President Franco Coladipietro said, “to create new memories there, to create new life experiences.”

Mall ‘wasn’t working’

In its prime, Stratford was a repository of memories. Shoppers from Bloomingdale and beyond flocked to its retailers. But about a decade ago, the mall lost a J.C. Penney. Macy’s and Carson Pirie Scott later closed. Sears shut down before the pandemic. Bloomingdale officials decided to step in, acquiring the old department stores and finally the core of the mall itself.

Coladipietro understands the emotional attachment to the mall. As a “kid from Joliet,” he worked at the Louis Joliet Mall and hung out in the food court.

“I have a deep appreciation of what Stratford meant to people, because at a certain point, during its heyday, it was a part of everyone's lives,” he said.

Stratford, though, “became something that was self-evident.”

“It wasn't as if you had to sell people on the idea that Stratford wasn't working. It just wasn't working,” Coladipietro said.

The village paid $17.1 million to acquire the five independent anchor pads and the interior mall space. It’s not in the business of purchasing property, Coladipietro told a standing-room-only crowd last year. But without village intervention, the mall would have continued to languish, officials have stressed.

“What we're announcing with the Grove, and then what we're going to announce going forward, I think that it reinforces that without the vision of the board and the steps that we took, that people were not going to make investments in the property,” Coladipietro said.

The village is working with Segovia Partners, Gravity Architecture & Design, Peak Construction Corporation and Christopher B. Burke Engineering on the redevelopment plans. The site falls within a tax increment financing district.

“There's been a lot of time and effort that's gone into doing this,” Coladipietro said. “And in these types of developments, success follows success.”

‘Committed to this project’

Bloomingdale Yard is slated to open in 2027, joining the chain’s indoor sports and rec centers in Westmont, Naperville and a Milwaukee suburb.

While park districts tend to focus more on courts, the roughly 100,000-square-foot complex will offer indoor fields and programming for both children and adults. The Yard also runs kids soccer classes, a full-service child care center and after-school sports.

Owner Bill Gust had long been interested in the property, even when the mall was still in operation. It is a “bit of a leap of faith at this point,” he said, on the leading edge of the redevelopment.

“But we take a lot of comfort in the mayor and village board and all of their staff. They've been very good to work with, and they're committed to this project,” Gust said.

The village has used loans to pay for the acquisition costs that will be repaid from the sale of parcels and TIF revenue. Officials expect to close on the sale of $52 million in bonds next week to fund the infrastructure work for “The Grove.”

Construction is set to start next year on public spaces, including a large lawn area and a man-made lake that will also serve as detention for the development.

“We want people to want to come to ‘The Grove’ because of the experience,” Coladipietro said. “You have this opportunity to have restaurants where you're essentially eating on the water kind of a feel.”

The village provided separate utilities for Kohl’s. So the retailer now has a free-standing building of its own. The village intends to retain ownership of some parking and sell off pads to restaurateurs, retailers and other developers.

“When I spoke last year about this, I had a forum at the golf club to roll this out. And people asked, ‘How long is this going to take?’ And I said, five to eight years maybe before the full build-out,” Coladipietro recalled. “So to be where we're at right now, I think it's amazing.”

Cue up the holiday playlist: the season is officially upon us. Bloomingdale’s was the first major New York department store to mark the season with the unveiling of their holiday windows and facade, in collaboration with Burberry, on Wednesday night. But before the grand reveal, guests got into the festive spirit with cocktails on the store’s second floor.

“It’s my first holiday event, so it’s nice to kick it off this way,” said Sarah Pidgeon, who was already bundled in a Burberry coat in preparation. “ It’s always nice to be out and about in New York. It’s wonderful to see everyone dressed in their Burberry best,” she added, glancing around the store’s Studio 59 restaurant-photo studio, where it was Burberry as far as the eye could see.

The actress, who’s starring as Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy in next year’s “Love Story” series, added that she’s looking forward to checking out the windows on Fifth Avenue and Rockefeller tree over the next month. “It’s such a romantic idea of window shopping in New York. I haven’t gone ice skating yet at Rockefeller Center, so maybe this is the year,” she added.

Guests including Alicia Silverstone, Isan Elba, Lori Harvey, Suni Lee, Paige Desorbo, Taylor Hill and Vinnie Hacker were all decked in an assortment of plaid ready-to-wear, outerwear and accessories, including Burberry’s trademark check scarf. Nicky Hilton made the evening a family occasion with her two young daughters — the trio in matching Burberry trenchcoats — and mother Kathy Hilton.

“I grew up going to Bloomingdale’s as a fancy, special thing with my grandma. So I was just excited to be getting the invite,” said “Nobody Wants This” star Justine Lupe, who also brought her baby daughter along for the nostalgic moment.

For Lupe, the holidays are less about fancy shopping, and more about quality time with family.

”If we do any gift-giving, we make each other things,” said Lupe. “And I like that as a tradition, we cook a big meal and we play games that we create, and sometimes we gift each other things that we make,” she added. “It takes all the holiday shopping for adults off the table, which is nice.”

“ We are just so excited to kick off the festive season and to bring a little bit of Britain to the iconic corner of 59th Street and Lexington Avenue,” said Burberry CEO Josh Schulman, as the crowd began to make their way down the escalators and outside to Lexington Avenue for the window reveal. “ I didn’t expect to have the type of emotional reaction I did when I saw it light up the other day,” he added.

Outside, British singer Raye performed a four-song set for the bleachers of seated VIPs and crowds huddled behind barricades nearby.

“ We’re gonna sing you a little bit of ‘Jingle Bells,'” she said, throwing a festive song into the mix with her other hits. “Turns out, there’s a lot more words in ‘Jingle Bells’ than you would’ve thought.”

At this early point in the holiday season, the crowd was eager to hear each one.

About

Bloomingdale's makes fashion personal and fun, aspirational yet approachable. Our mission is to guide and inspire our customers to make style a source of creative energy in their lives. We will always strive to make Bloomingdale's like no other store in the world. Across all brand touchpoints-from Bloomingdales.com to our newest small store concept, Bloomie's-everyone plays a critical role bringing our mission to life. Our inclusive culture promotes diversity of background, thought and opinion. Regardless of position, we believe all colleagues have a voice and access to share their thoughts with every level of leadership. Our colleagues are passionate, driven, entrepreneurial and collaborative, while having a lot of fun along the way.

Job Overview

As the Senior Manager, Customer Strategy - Stores & Digital at Bloomingdale's, you will serve as the lead insights and customer strategy partner to our Store and Digital (COM) leadership teams. Your role is focused on deeply understanding customer sentiment-connecting NPS feedback, behavioral data, and operational results to identify the biggest opportunities to improve the customer experience and drive business performance.

You will lead efforts to translate feedback into actionable strategies, partnering cross-functionally to address friction points across the in-store and digital journeys. You'll also oversee market-level research to identify where we have the greatest customer opportunity, helping guide customer-led decisions about store location and format strategy. You are the translator of the customer voice-turning insight into action and partnering with teams across the business to drive meaningful, measurable outcomes.

Key Responsibilities

Customer Strategy & Experience Innovation

Behavioral Insights & Impact

Insight Communication & Influence

Partner Collaboration & Feedback Integration

Skills You Will Need:

Qualifications

As Olivier Bron, the chief executive officer of Bloomingdale’s, sees it, the retailer and Burberry are on similar journeys — and they’re coming together in a major way at the store’s 59th Street flagship in Manhattan.

For its holiday campaign, Bloomingdale’s overarching theme is “Happy Together,” which Bron says is quite appropriate given the state of the world and all its turmoil. For the campaign, “We have many activations and partnerships with some of the brands,” such as the Alice + Olivia festive takeover of Bloomingdale’s famed 40 Carrots café and a Canada Goose holiday pop-up, to name just a few.

“But Burberry is actually the main anchor here. Burberry is included in this campaign in a big, big way,” Bron pointed out. And it’s most evident at the Bloomingdale’s 59th Street flagship, the CEO added, saying, “It’s a very strong takeover from Burberry.”

Here’s what the collaboration largely entails:

“We really think the values of Burberry and Bloomingdale’s are very much aligned,” said Bron. They’re both iconic brands, and in a state of transformation, he said.

“When you look at the positioning and the values of these two brands, coming together for celebrating this holiday season, the biggest moment of the year, makes a lot of sense.”

Bron, citing other reasons for spotlighting Burberry, said the strategy that Josh Schulman, Burberry’s CEO, is now pushing at the brand is “very exciting” and that the collaboration is a culmination of the 70-year partnership the two companies have enjoyed. “It’s great to show customers that we’ve had a very, very long, lasting partnership,” said Bron.

“The collaboration with Bloomingdale’s is super exciting, and truly a 360-degree activation enveloping the Bloomingdale’s customer — and frankly, all of New York City — in the spirit of Burberry for the festive season,” said Schulman.

Asked why Burberry is working more closely with Bloomingdale’s this season, Schulman said: “We were discussing with Olivier and his team ways we could tell the Burberry story at Bloomingdale’s. We had this great meeting of the minds around wrapping the flagship with an extraordinary, glittering Burberry scarf. And so the idea really started with that element, and then permeated the overall store, including the windows and the facade. The Burberry scarf is made of 126,000 light bulbs. It’s actually six miles of Christmas lights and covers nearly 5,000 square feet of area.”

The giant scarf might or might not rival the soaring Louis Vuitton travel trunk covering the facade of the Vuitton flagship under construction on Fifth Avenue, but it could be a crowd-stopper still.

“We’re going to bring a bit of newness, for sure,” said Bron. “It’s the first time a brand has taken over of the facade of the iconic Bloomingdale’s building, and we think that’s really bringing something different and new to the Upper East Side, and recreating a destination for our customers.”

Shulman expects that half a million people will experience the facade, windows and what’s inside Bloomingdale’s. “We’ll have activations throughout the 59th Street store and in selected branches as well. We also have an exclusive capsule in a bright postbox red,” said Schulman, referring to the vibrant color of Britain’s mailboxes.

The Burberry Bloomingdale’s takeover “is really for the whole family, for men, women, children. We even have two exclusive teddy bears, and one that’s dressed in a Burberry check scarf,” said Schulman.

The collaboration, he said, “represents a unique opportunity for us to speak to a broad luxury audience across America, and it’s a great canvas for us to tell the story of Burberry, and to welcome people to our brand. We have devotees of Burberry who always shop in our stores or on our website, but there is a world of customers who may not be aware of the evolution of our brand expression and the evolution of our products, so we were thrilled to have this opportunity to collaborate in New York City.”

The collaboration couldn’t have been timed better considering Burberry is showing signs of rebounding and regaining relevance, after years of false starts. As reported, in the second quarter like-for-like retail sales grew 2 percent, outstripping analysts’ expectations of flat year-on-year performance. It was also an improvement on the first quarter, when retail sales were down 1 percent. In the first half, like-for-like retail sales were flat at 854 million pounds. But it was still a win for Burberry, which had reported a 20 percent decline in the corresponding period last year.

Denise Magid, Bloomingdale’s chief merchant, recalled that when Shulman was in his early innings at Burberry (he joined the London-based brand in July 2024) the Bloomingdale’s team met him in Paris.

“He shared the vision of the brand, and some of the early marketing materials. We were inspired by where he was taking the brand. And we thought about our rich history together, and obviously Burberry is the ultimate gift giver with a lot of the categories they play in. They play across all our families of business — children’s, men’s, women’s, beauty. So it just felt like the right partner for us to celebrate with our ‘Happy Together’ campaign,” Magid said.

As part of the collaboration, “We went through all the iconic pieces we wanted to have, and they came up with an exclusive red colorway for us that would be a comprehensive capsule touching every family of business. It was a lot of back-and-forth with their teams to come up with something special for us. And then we surrounded that exclusive capsule with iconic gifting items within their collection…It was a really cross-functional, collaborative experience to bring the very best of Burberry, in partnership with Bloomingdale’s, to life,” she added.

Exclusive items are in each family of business, Magid said, citing “very accessible price points with cold weather scarves and beanies and gloves, sunglasses, childrenswear, headbands.” But there are also luxury pieces, Magid added, including exclusive outerwear around $3,000.

Asked how Burberry is evolving, Magid said, “They’re very focused on their DNA. They’re really maximizing key categories particularly outerwear and taking very iconic items and creating greater storytelling around them.

“They’re also creating an assortment architecture that allows more people more access, which is a critical piece of their path forward,” Magid said, noting that much of Bloomingdale’s Burberry assortment falls in the $300 to $3,000 range. “But I think it’s really about homing in on the categories they’re really strong in, and greater storytelling.”

November 12, 2025 at 8:55 am

Getting parking validated can be a game of cat-and-mouse…and it can also get pretty annoying!

But there are ways to fight back!

A man named Daus posted a video on TikTok and told viewers about how he cleverly got his parking validated after he was initially denied at a Bloomingdale’s store.

Daus told viewers, “I wanted to validate my ticket and I asked the girl at the cashier if I can validate here in Bloomingdale’s. And with the nastiest ******* look in her eyes. And the nastiest ******* attitude she said, only with a Bloomingdale’s receipt.”

He continued,” “So I’m petty. What I’m going to do is buy something, return it, get that receipt, and then go back to that same weird *** ***** and be like here, validate it.”

Daus then showed viewers that he bought something in the store.

He asked an employee, “I have a question, how long are your guys’ returns? No, no, I’m gonna buy it, but does it’s just I have a cousin that I think somebody already bought it for her. So I’m just wondering.”

The worker said, “They don’t like it. Whatever, just bring it back. Make sure it’s not used.”

Daus showed viewers that he spent $35 on his purchase and he had the receipt in his hand.

The TikTokker then went to another worker and made the return.

Daus then set out to find the employee who he had a run-in with.

He said, “Now, where the **** is that ***** at?”

Daus found the woman in question and asked her, “So do you guys validate up here, or…?”

He then told viewers, “I got my **** validated.”

Now take a look at the video.

TikTokkers shared their thoughts.

This person chimed in.

Another viewer spoke up.

And this TikTokker shared their thoughts.

That’s what we like to call a bit of “petty revenge.”

If you liked that story, check out this one about a couple who forgot to turn off their ice machine and returned home after 4 months to find their freezer had turn into a frozen cavern.