Hi
Some malls remain very viable. One large city we know only has one mall so it is full of customers. Another smaller city is very rich and it’s big mall is similarly packed with customers for its very upscale shops.
A third mall, also in a smaller city, had three anchors. Sears Is empty. Penney’s is limping along but with very few customers, alas. The local large department store was bought by a national department store and then closed. Later sold to target — which whether one liked it or not isn’t a good match as an anchor store in a mall. It gets fine customers but they don’t shop any other stores.
So the entire mall is about to be razed and replaced by 1100 apartments (which almost nobody in town wants).
There are retail stores that could make it big time on the site, stores that are not in the area and which many many people would like —- but … it’s gonna become a huge apartment project instead.
Malls and retail shops can be viable. Sears was a textbook case of BBM (bankruptcy by management😎)
BBM - ditto for Montgomery Ward. My wife was a manager and it was infuriating to watch the company destroy itself.
Her store was in Florida at that time and corporate would not allow them to stock swimsuits after July 4. Because corporate was in Chicago and could not conceive of people buying swimsuits later than that.