Homecoming - Filming Locations: The Mall Department Store

Q. When did we see it on the show ?

A. At the start of Episode 5 ("Helping"), at 00:46, we see Heidi ( Julia Roberts ) walking through the cosmetic counters, when she spots something.

She nervously approaches a pretty salesgirl, who successfully tries to interest her in a product.

Heidi asks "What is a plumper?", and the sales girl explains.

The salesgirl asks Heidi what is her "daily beauty regimen", and when Heidi hesitates ( because she obviously doesn't have one ) the salesgirl smiles, knowing she can probably sell her a bundle of products.

( In the next scene, Heidi is in her car, and her face has obviously been made up by the salesgirl. Looking in the mirror, she has second thoughts, and makes an effort to rub off the makeup before going inside. )

Q. What is it actually in real life ?

A. A cosmetic counter in a mall department store.

Q. Where can I find it in real life ?

A. Truth in advertising, folks! This is not a studio set, it was actually shot on location in the Macy's department store at the Sherman Oaks mall ( "Westfield Fashion Square" ), at 14000 Riverside Drive, in Sherman Oaks, CA.

It's a nice, upscale mall, in the San Fernando Valley, right next to (north of) the Ventura Freeway.

This Macy's store is at the east end of the mall ( with the Bloomingdale's on the west end, and about 140 stores in between. )

It's about 4 miles west of another "Homecoming" location, the Shanzhai restaurant, about 6 miles southeast of her mother's house, and only one mile southwest of the campus.

Q. How the heck did you figure out where it was?

A. A little history about this website: it's the end result of what started out as an effort to write the most world's comprehensive guidebook to Los Angeles, and I spent about a decade researching virtually every interesting spot in Los Angeles for that book.

As a result, I visited ( among a zillion other things ) every major shopping mall in the Greater Los Angeles/Orange County area ( and there were a lot more of them back when I was doing that initial research, before Amazon started putting malls out of business. ) And this mall was on my list.

Back then it was called Sherman Oaks Fashion Square, and it has changed over the years.

Those big, diamond-shaped ceiling lamps in Macy's are memorable.

So all I did was Google for images of that mall, and matched them to the screenshot of the cosmetics counter, and that was all it took.

Ignore the red Christmas decorations in the photo of Macy's below, and pay attention to that diamond-shaped chandelier…