Louis Joliet Mall — Attraction in Joliet

This used to be a decent mall several years ago, but the decline started before covid. Malls can't choose who shops there, to be fair. So when trouble started showing up, the mall mgmt did try their best to respond: new requirements for chaperones for underage kids, earlier hours even on weekends, etc. But the shift in demographic and correlating crime drove off a lot of people. This resulted in a turnover of big brand stores, and places like unlicensed sports jersey stores and hat shops moved in. Again, you can't blame the mall; they still have bills to pay and need to keep the shops filled. Then covid hit and in-person retail stalled. Now the mall is nearly dead, save for a few hold outs. All the same problems remain, along with a new one that had slowly started pre-pandemic: people using the children's play area as a personal theme park. You might be inclined to think it's a parent waiting with the kids while the other shops, but it's not. Both parents are there, doomscrolling on their phone for hours. It's hardly the courtesy area it was intended to be. If you go through recent reviews of this mall, it's a lot of people complaining about the state of the play place. How can a cleaning service get in there when there are no less than 10 kids at any given open hour? And how do you expect them to repeatedly re-carpet the play area to suit your misplaced application of high standards when you aren't even shopping while there so that the mall can make revenue enough to do so? Take your kids to a local park or to library, places that are designed for kids and, with the library, might advance them out of a destitute life. Sadly this goes back to the original issue: people using the mall as a babysitter. In the news this week there was a shooting on Mall Loop Drive with 80 casings found by police. You already had to be wary in the mall of theft and occasional brawls breaking out (not to mention the hooting during movies). Sadly I don't see any way back to the old glory days for this mall. I am truly sorry for the mall mgmt as you can tell in the effort they take to keep the interior clean, brightly lit, and updated and the responsive policies they implement that they are trying very hard to keep...

I went to enjoy the movie wicked with my family. This being my second watch I Know it’s a two hour move so I decided to use the restroom before going to sit down. My family went off to find their seats so when I came out I moved past the crowd of children, and the ‘security’ officer asks me to see my ticket claiming he ‘saw me come trough the exit and I need to leave out the way I came in.’ I explained my bf had the tickets and I can just call him over and he continues to say ‘you can just go back through the exit because I don’t want to have to arrest you or anything.’ Being a young adult black women this comment of course shook me and I refrained from engaging with the ‘security officer’ who was sitting on a stool. I call my bf who immediately comes to show the three tickets he purchased. I got no apology and I left telling him that was very rude to suggest you were gonna arrest me after I said I didn’t come from the exit. Me being emotionally my mother sees and hears what happened and goes to confront of him and he says he said nothing like that. He continues to say I’m lying. So instead of arguing further we go ask for a manager. The manager apologizes and offers free tickets. As the manager leaves off to get our free tickets, the ‘security officer’ comes back out saying ‘you got your freebies’ like that’s what we came here to get after paying our hard earned money to sit and watch WICKED. The man continues to say we made it racial because we didn’t appreciate being spoke to that way. End of the story my problem isn’t with the movie theater because the manager and workers were polite. The manager explained they don’t hire the security the mall does. So my complaint is with the mall for hiring racist lazy security officers who do nothing but accuse people of stealing entrance for a 9 dollar...

It was good being back there again. Wasn't by myself this time. I had my beautiful son with me and we met a few interesting people along the way, including the lady in janitorial who is a die-hard Cubs fan like I am. She was very nice and friendly. She may have told me her name but I forgot. Just look for the Chicago Cubs in her uniform or her hair. She made sure that the family restroom was clean and had plenty of soap to wash our hands. I changed my son's diaper and the changing tables are better than the usual plastic fold-down tables. My son's family bought him some shoes so I took it upon myself to go to Footlocker and bought him a couple pair of Converse and one pair of Jordans. I met some amazing kids who work at Foot Locker. I wish I can adopt them all! I got myself a couple masks at the Custom Masks kiosk across from Footlocker. The lady there was very nice too. The only thing that wasn't that great was going to the Burger King in the food court. I threw almost a whole Whopper and a half away because they just didn't taste right and wasn't fixed the way I asked. The fries were okay. I like salt but they went overboard. They were already gone because the mall was closing soon and now I have to find my receipt to let customer service know. The social distancing is definitely in place, so be prepared for it and...