Merchandise Mart
Merchandise Mart
4
9:00 AM - 5:00 PM
Monday
9:00 AM - 5:00 PM
Tuesday
9:00 AM - 5:00 PM
Wednesday
9:00 AM - 5:00 PM
Thursday
9:00 AM - 5:00 PM
Friday
9:00 AM - 5:00 PM
About
The largest commercial building in the world. First two floors are essentially a mall, and the rest is business offices.
Suggest edits to improve what we show.
Improve this listingTours & experiences
Explore different ways to experience this place.
Full view
Top ways to experience Merchandise Mart
The area
Address
Neighbourhood: Near North Side
How to get there
- Merchandise Mart • 2 min walk
- Clark/Lake • 6 min walk
Reach out directly
Best nearby
Restaurants
3 623 within 5 kms
Attractions
1 042 within 10 kms
Contribute
Most Recent: Reviews ordered by most recent publish date in descending order.
Detailed Reviews: Reviews ordered by recency and descriptiveness of user-identified themes such as waiting time, length of visit, general tips, and location information.
Popular mentions
4.0
154 reviews
Excellent
62
Very good
61
Average
25
Poor
5
Terrible
1
Taylor B
Chicago, IL8 506 contributions
Jun 2024 • Business
When my wife and I moved to our current address in 1983, we hired a designer to dress up our new residence. The first thing she did was arrange for us to spend two days at Chicago's Merchandise Mart, visiting one retail store after another, looking for sofas, chairs, tables, chandeliers, mirrors, paintings, artwork, lamps, everything necessary to fill a 2,000-square-foot apartment. If the Merchandise Mart doesn't have it, it must not exist. Located at 222 Merchandise Mart Plaza in downtown Chicago, with Orleans Street to the west, Wells Street to the east, Kinzie Street to the North and the Chicago River to the south, it was the largest building in the world with 4.2 million square feet of floor space when it was built by department store magnate Marshall Field in 1930. It realized Field's dream of a single wholesale center for the entire nation and consolidated 13 different warehouses. The numbers are staggering...25 stories, two city blocks, 7.5 miles of corridors, 30 elevators, 4,000 windows, 29 million bricks, 40 miles of plumbing, 380 miles of wiring, 4 million cubic yards of concrete, 200,000 cubic feet of stone, 60,000 tons of steel. Today, the Art Deco structure that once had its own ZIP code is valued at nearly $1 billion. And it remains the world's largest commercial building and design center and one of Chicago's premier international business locations. It is home to several enterprises, including Shop at the Mart, Designer Center showrooms, Conagra Brands, Allstate, Medline Industries, Beam Santory, the Chicago campus of the Illinois Institute of Art and the Grainger Technology Group branch of W.W. Grainger. You'll find everything from A to Z...furniture stores, apparel shops, bookstores, newsstands, restaurants, food court, shoe shine stand, financial services, travel services, photography services, specialty food and wine stores, beauty services, dry cleaner, even a U.S. Post Office and a Federal Express location. Hungry? Looking to take a lunch break? Choose Blackwood BBQ or Billy Goat Tavern or Marshall's Landing or Dunkin Donuts or Mezza Grill.
Written 7 June 2024
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
SusieD
Indianapolis, IN325 contributions
Dec 2021
My husband and I had the privilege of going to The Mart for the first time Dec. 2021. The vendors display high end merchandise, and the creatives were happy to share information with us lay people. One must experience this massive building, as it was an indescribable, well, experience. We went back the next day even though most places were closed for the holidays. It is a marvelous way to spend some time - a lot of time - when in Chicago. It leaves an impression on visitors, and it is one of the most memorable buildings in Chicago.
Written 11 January 2022
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Ruth K
Flat Rock, NC3 contributions
Sept 2022 • Solo
I am a Chicago native and an Interior Designer. I spent many a happy day shopping at the Mart for my clients, sometimes with them, sometimes alone. After we started building our home in Naples, FL in the summer of 2003, I practically lived at the Mart buying furniture for our new home. I also spent time shopping for antiques at the many wonderful antique stores that I was familiar with in the Chicago area. We moved into our new home in February 2004. All of my stuff was delivered and our home was starting to take shape. However, I needed the drapes, wall hangings, etc. I was up and down Route 41 in Naples everyday to finish furnishing our home. It turned out so well that the Home and Design magazine in Naples featured it in their December 2005 - January 2006 issue. One of the many things that I miss about Chicago, since we no longer have a home there, is the Merchandise Mart. It is a magical place!
Written 16 August 2023
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Grover R
Pensacola, FL22 130 contributions
Jun 2022
This building dominates the Chicago River just east of the river branch junction. You will get great views of it from a river tour. It was the largest building in the world when completed in 1930 as the consolidation market for Chicago's wholesalers. Along with the Chicago Board of Trade building, they are the best examples of Art Deco architecture in Chicago. Along the river, the building displays bust of the great US retailers, most of whom were from Chicago. Another great building in this city.
Written 24 November 2022
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
pyegirl
Rome, Italy1 427 contributions
Sept 2023 • Family
This is the place to go if you are in the market for new, high end kitchen appliances or remodel fixtures and you want to see them and talk to peopel who know the differences between all the diff models/products. For those of us who live in small markets and can't actually see the actual appliances and are left to guess with either sales people who don't know squat (eg. Best Buy or small appliance stores that hire your college student on vacation), this is the place to go to really shop.
Make an appointment with all the show rooms and have them tell you about their products. They don't actually sell you the product, but they are very knowledgeable. Thermador, Bosch, Miele, Wolf, Monogram, Dakor, Waterworks, you name it, it's there.
One stop shopping with people who know their stuff.
Make an appointment with all the show rooms and have them tell you about their products. They don't actually sell you the product, but they are very knowledgeable. Thermador, Bosch, Miele, Wolf, Monogram, Dakor, Waterworks, you name it, it's there.
One stop shopping with people who know their stuff.
Written 27 September 2023
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
British Bridal W
3 contributions
Aug 2023 • Business
Visiting from the UK to exhibit at the 2023 Bridal show and as always all the staff are so friendly and good at what they do from all departments. A credit to the organisers and the city of Chicago. Looking forward to being back here in 2024 already.
Written 22 August 2023
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Taylor B
Chicago, IL8 506 contributions
Jan 2019 • Couples
A few years ago, while redesigning our apartment, we joined our home designer to Chicago's Merchandise Mart to shop for new furniture and lighting and mirrors and other fixtures. We went from one showroom to another. By the end of the day, we thought we had walked from one end of Chicago to the other. What an imposing building! Completed in 1931, the Merchandise Mart was the world's largest commercial building for a period of 10 years. Located on the north bank of the Chicago River between Wells Street and Orleans Street, it is 25 floors high and two city blocks long with 13.6 miles of corridors. Only the Pentagon in Washington, DC, is larger. It once was owned by Joseph P. Kennedy of the famous Kennedy clan, which included President John F. Kennedy, Attorney General Robert Kennedy and Senator Edwin Kennedy. Renovated between 1986 and 1991, the Merchandise Mart now contains a public shopping arcade on the first two floors, which contains retail stores and restaurants. On the outside, along the river, often overlooked, are a series of eight pillars with large busts on top. Created in 1953, this is the Merchant's Hall of Fame and each of the bronze busts represent a famous retailer such as Marshall Field and Frank Woolworth. Guided tours are available. Be sure to wear comfortable shoes.
Written 3 February 2019
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
booradley2
san diego213 contributions
I found myself in the Merchandise Mart because I was looking for a cheap Chinese buffet-------I couldn't find one in the neighborhood, so I thought I'd try the food court in the Mart. I didn't find a buffet, but I did end up taking a brief unauthorized tour of the building. Only the first two floors of the Mart are open to the public. Everything above that is for the wholesale trade only. However, there was no one to stop me from taking one of the elevators in the lobby, so I got in a car and punched a number at random. I'm always curious about what goes on "back of the house", as they say in the restaurant industry. I was hoping to maybe stumble across the executive dining room. Or better still, the executive bar. However, I only explored one upper floor, mainly because what I found was so dull. The first two floors are pretty impressive-looking: long corridors------VERY long corridors, monumentally long corridors-------with a handsome art deco decor. (Or maybe it's art moderne. Or Streamline. I don't know, I'm no architectural historian.) There are lots of home furnishings stores on these floors-------it's virtually a mall. The upper floors, however, are very drab. They had all the ambience of the shopping arcade in the Eighth Ave. subway station in New York, the one next to the Port Authority bus terminal. (And just like in the subway arcade, many of the stores in the Mart were closed.) When I started getting strange looks from the people who were authorized to be there, I booked. The Mart is located on the Chicago River. After I exited the building, I lounged against the balustrade out in front of the Mart, the one that overlooks the river. The river itself is about twenty feet below street level. There are esplanade-like plazas beside the water that would be great locations for, say, a coffee cart. With a few tables and chairs, they would be a perfect place for tourists, or anyone, to laze away a few minutes out in the fresh air, but shielded from the din of traffic. For some reason, however, all of the gates that led to the stairways that went down to these esplanades were locked. In my opinion, this could be one of the most charming spots in downtown Chicago, if it was opened up to the public.
Written 8 December 2006
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Taylor B
Chicago, IL8 506 contributions
Oct 2020
If you are a native Chicagoan or have ever visited the city, you probably walked past or drove past the Merchandise Mart. But have you ever spent any time inside the building? Have you ever been inside the world's largest commercial building, a structure so large that it once had its own zip code, a building so massive that it has been known as "a city within a city?" Located at 222 Merchandise Mart Plaza, at Kinzie Street between Orleans and Wells, on the Chicago River just east of Chicago's original trading post at Wolf Point, the junction of the river's North and South Branches, in downtown Chicago, the Merchandise Mart is a leading retailing and wholesale destination that hosts 20,000 visitors and tenants per day. Built by Marshall Field & Company and owned by the Kennedy family for half a century, it centralized Chicago's wholesale goods business by consolidating architectural and interior design vendors and traders under a single roof. Opened in 1930, the 25-story Art Deco style structure is spread across two square city blocks and includes 4.2 million square feet of floor space. Its construction required 29 million bricks, 40 miles of plumbing, 380 miles of wiring, 4 million cubic yards of concrete and 4,000 windows. Visitors also marvel at the 7.5 miles of corridors and 30 elevators. In 1977, the Chicago Apparel Center was opened on the west side of Orleans Street, increasing the Merchandise Mart's total floor space to 6.2 million square feet. Since 2010, the design center showroom has been open to the public. The retail shopping area, named The Shops at the Mart, opened in 1991 and includes apparel shops, beauty services, news stands and bookstores, financial services, travel services, telecommunications services, specialty food and wine stores, photo services, a dry cleaner, shoe shine stand and food court. In addition, a 521-room Holiday Inn is housed in the Apparel Center. Since 1969, the Merchandise Mart has hosted the annual National Exposition of Contract Furnishings with over 1,000 exhibitors and 50,000 attendees, the largest trade show of his kind in North America. Oh, the building isn't just big. The first floor is beautiful, too. An architectural masterpiece. The lobby features artist Jules Guerin's frieze of 17 murals which graphically illustrate commerce throughout the world. Is a visit to the Merchandise Mart a once-in-a-lifetime experience? My wife and I vividly recall going on a day-long shopping trip with a home designer to buy new furniture for our apartment. One glitzy showroom after another. One purchase, a grand mirror for our entryway, took two weeks to be shipped from England. At the Merchandise Mart, everything is first-rate.
Written 26 October 2020
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Taylor Avenue Q
Seattle, WA48 contributions
Feb 2018 • Business
The Merchandise Mart is HUGE and you will be surrounded by beautiful things when you visit. It is certainly a perfect place to visit and have a look around at all the showrooms when stunning furniture and accessories!
Written 5 March 2018
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Tickets do not have to be purchased for anyone.
Written 29 August 2017
Showing results 1-4 of 4
Is this your Tripadvisor listing?
Own or manage this property? Claim your listing for free to respond to reviews, update your profile and much more.
Claim your listing