Barnes and Noble. I still like the feel of a book and the Barnes and Noble at Westfield Mall is always busy.

this whole town has turned into a bar...Wisma never got it, their hours were ridiculous, they should have offered great coffee and home made scones, Coffee like Intelligensia, their window display was a hot mess, nothing inviting..Businesses uptown don't get it. Highland park gets it. The have the tea house that Billy Corgan owns, a great theater that is clean and plays Indi films. You need to get stores that already carry a customer base since new beginners have no clue to fill a nitch and make it one of a kind. Look at the small coffee and scone place in Wimette, they sell out of scones in an hour and offer rare coffee. I hope someday Libertyville will figure it out

I agree with the comments above however, I'd rather see a small quaint bookstore rather than the large chain. Also would love to see a specialty childrens/baby boutique (like in Northbrook). BTW...What is going on with the Japanese restaurant ...is it ever going to open? Would love to see Sushi Thai move closer into town with a larger place!

in the 1970s there was a wonderful kids clothing store in the strip mall on the north east corner of 21 and 176. family owned. owners got old and could not sell nor convince children to take it over. same thing happened to langworthys dept store in town.

A good old-fashioned jewish type deli with NY style bagels, fresh baked bread, deli meats, cheeses, etc.

I agree with a specialty baby and kids store. With boutique clothing, specialty toys and baby gear.

Starbucks and Carribou is not the same as having Illy's or Intelligensia. I have to come to the fact that we will NEVER be an Evanston or Highland park, no Whole Foods, No great cafe's, No good boutiques. The only way for a business to stay is being a chain and the proof is in the pudding. Starbucks, Carribou, Egg Harbor, Wild Berry, all chains and they made it. That new dog store up town needs to go to Evanston and see the dog bakery there. Big Difference, I just don't go up town. If I want to go somewhere I drive.

A Italian Deli with a outdoor grill like Tenutas in Kenosha, a Banh Mi sandwich shop, the old Bernhardt's bakery with the best cardamon coffee cake and cookies in the world, the old Bao's chinese carryout on Rt. 137 or someplace that serves really fresh, light and healthy chinese food, a California Pizza kitchen or a duplicate of Great Lakes Pizza in Chicago, a buffalo wing shack, "TV Dinners"-no, not the kind you microwave, the kind you see on the "Food Network" shows-a restaurant that serves only the dishes from top food shows or how about a restaurant that serves all the "regional" dishes from around the country in one place(lobster rolls, fish tacos, chili's, gumbo, etc.), speaking of chili-remember the old "Smokehouse" by Jewel-they had great chili with the rib meat mixed in. OK, that's about all I can come up with off the top of my head. P.S. please support Sunset foods and Darango mexican restaurant on Washington street, I would like both to stay in business because both have great food. Thanx

I would love to see a tea room! When I have guests in town, we go to the tea room in downtown Antioch for a wonderful 'ladies lunch', then shop there.

Young Moderns was the name of the children's store. And after a trip there, we'd go to Smith Shoes to complete the outfits, and if we behaved, Mom would take us to 31 Flavors afterward!

I'd like to see a Lululemon open up in town the closest one is Northbrook. I'd also like to see a Trader Joes..

I would like to see a restaurant that specializes in different kinds of salads...like in The Glen...I think it is called CHOPPED. Like a giant salad bar!!!

I wish we had a nice card shop. Someplace that carried a wide variety of traditional and newer, handmade type cards. Not just a shop with a few racks of cards like we have now, but a full size card shop - even a Hallmark would be great.

Missing Present Moment and Abby Ames Attic, type of store. a local touch and yes, they had a wide variety of cards that had character and were unique!

Part of the problem is that our town's population is decreasing each year, just look at school enrollment. We need more retail and manufacturing. Trader Joe's will hurt restaurants just as Mariano's did. Is Rancho Grande closed for good? How many times can Tommy's get busted for serving underage drinkers?

A spice store like The Spice House (Evanston) or Penzey's would be great.

wow, baby shops and wing shacks, what a nightmare. I was thinking a classy approach and more urban. Pizza places, Barnes and Noble, well Borders went out of Business in HP. Tea Room for sure..Sushi is so 10 minutes ago. It is hopeless, thank God for a car to get a taste of the city, this town will never get there.

A quilt & knitting shop.

More bars! Milwaukee Avenue... aka DUI highway every Friday and Saturday night!

tea house, spice shop, Red Hen Bakery, and a great Middle Eastern Restaurant.

The comments here indicate that Libertyville doesn't know what it is and what it wants to be. Libertyville has changed a lot. (I've been in the area since 1983.) With all of the bars, tattoo parlors and "spas," I feel as if Libertyville likes to think of itself as Bedford Falls, but acts like it's Pottersville. It used to be a much more family-oriented town, with a strong focus on children. Now it's focus is food and drink, drink, drink. The stores that catered to families and children are the stores that keep disappearing. Even if they don't disappear, a lot of them are having a really rough time. Markets shift, and there is usually a difference between what people say they want and what they really want. They vote with their dollars.

Having owned a store in down town Libertyville, I can attest to the fact that these retail, niche stores have a rough time. Let's face it: you don't shop down town because it's too expensive. The rents are fairly high, and small shops have a lot of overhead to cover. Even if you carry things that you can't readily get anywhere else in person, you are still competing with the Internet. People will walk into your store and pull up Amazon on their phones and order it right there, usually for 30%-50% less. Niche stores have no buying power if they are not a chain.

Real money is at risk in these shops, and they shouldn't be viewed as window dressing for the town's main drag. You have to shop at these stores, or they will close.

no, the comments responded to the question which was what do the responders want to see in down town lib. different people want different things.

shopping in town is not too expensive. the cooking store has comparable prices to william sonoma and is more convenient. the bootery has good shoes reasonably priced and again very convenient. the chocolate shop must be doing ok. it has been there over ten years.

perhaps your store did not work because the goods offered were not what the public wanted to buy.

rents now should be low. there are empty stores here and elsewhere. those who charge rents too high continue to have vacancies.

people in lib. do want toys. my wife and i frequented that store weekly. it was not downtown. it was not on milwaukee ave at rockland. it was on rockland so not that visible. there was no advertising in print or mail. i never found it on line.

the goods were great. reasonably priced and the owners very helpful. we were told there were about 100 loyal customers but they needed 300. it seems to me that they did not seek them out by advertising.

My store, Whatsit & Doohickey Co., was on Milwaukee Ave downtown. Toy Station was on Rockland, and it was a secondary location for Toy Station in Lake Forest. Both TS stores are now closed. Toy Station opened up right after we had made the decision to close. Of course, they didn't know that because we closed a few months later.

We also had a base of loyal customers, and we really appreciate those who came by often. But to cover all of your overhead you need a larger average ticket or more customers or better wholesale pricing. I agree that we did not invest as much time and money as we should have in advertising and promotion.

I'm not expressing sour grapes here, but using my experience to illustrate what I have observed as a change in Libertyville. There may be others reading this that are thinking of opening up here, and Main St. and the EDC are not going to give them anything but positive feedback on whatever they want to open up, regardless of the market. If someone is thinking of opening a store in Libertyville, they should look at what kinds of stores have not made it over the past several years and study that. Can they do it better? Maybe. We don't regret the experience, because many good things came out of it.

In any case, other than a baby boutique, not one person here has expressed a desire for something specifically family-oriented. Tea rooms, Trader Joe's, spice shops...you get the picture.

Kathleen - I mentioned school enrollment being down, and it is. Libertyville's population is getting older and not as many "young" families are moving in. The Toy Store failed caused they were opened from 10am - 5pm, when kids are in school and the parents are at work. The Internet has hurt small retail business more than the "big box" stores, the overhead is much higher now which makes it harder to stay competitive. Has anyone seen how many house are up for sale? It's getting too expensive to live in L'ville which is taking away spending money from families.

It would be nice to have a bookstore/used book store that had an open stage for local musicians on weekends. It could be combined with a tea/coffee shop. They could hostess book clubs and writing groups.
Another great addition would be an Art Gallery with original Art. We need places to enrich our lives, not places to just numb our senses

Lived in L'ville long enough to tell you I used to go to the AP downtown and pickup grocerys for my Mom. Libertyville has changed and not necessarily for the better. I try and tell myself to shop downtown, I love the Olive Oil store and will miss WISMA. Lovin Oven lost my business - way too rude. Libertyville needs to attract consumers with time and money and that means - KIDS. My HS kids hang at Chipolte and 5guys. They often go right passed the cook area when the wallet is less full and go to taco bell and Mcdonalds. I expect any business that doesn't like the tween/teen demographic to struggle.

I'd love an eclectic coffee, tea, scone, yogurt, new/used books, cards, some live music type shop that is open til at least 11p. A destination *besides* bars.
Another cool idea is we always visit in Key West. Called "Better Than Sex," it's wine, coffees, teas, and lavish desserts ONLY, open from 9p-1a. Almost pitch dark, a flashlight is provided to read the entertaining menu. The place does fabulous business! I'd love one here!

Libertyville Mom: You very likely purchased the gift card at least two months before we closed. We were originally planning to stay open through Christmas, but found that we were not able to do so. We closed out all merchandise through the month of September. We announced the closing to Patch, on FaceBook, and posted a lot of signs.

That said, I will be happy to refund your unused gift certificate if you still have it.

How anyone can suggest that we need another niche shop is beyond me. Per Kathleen's experience and comments, we all love the idea of a toy store, but when we can find these toys on Amazon at 50 - 75% of the price, we'll buy there - especially the big ticket items that provide decent revenue for the small shops. The problem is not a demographic one: My wife and I are city transplants with 2 young children, and there are tons of residents just like us.

A retailer that survives will have to attract walking-distance residents on a regular (weekly) basis. I would love to see a butcher/fresh produce shop in town. As a resident right off Milwaukee, I can walk to get almost anything but fresh groceries. I could see making daily trips into town with my kids when I get home from work to see what we can make for dinner. A focus on locally sourced produce would guarantee a constant variety. All of the new residents on School Street in 2013 would probably keep such a place alive single-handedly.

A tea shop might work, but it would have to drive either Starbucks or Caribou out - there's not room for 3. A good one probably would drive one of them out. I think a good deli downtown would also work. NYC Bagel on North Ave in the city is a good example of what a crowd a delicious breakfast sandwich can bring. Even better, put in a deli that serves good coffee....