Here’s an empirical experiment. Go to your local mall and camp out near one of the seemingly popular clothes or goods stores, preferably with a line of sight to the cash registers. Note how many people go in and do “shopping as a sport” versus how many people actually buy something.
Here in Canada, I don’t know about the US, malls have 1 or 2 anchor stores. Usually one of two of those anchors are department stores. With Sears and Target failing in Canada, one wonders who will pay the rent on this anchor stores. In one case Lowes filled the vacancy. Will see how it goes. In Canada we have Hudson Bay Company. They have been experimenting with everything under the sun to increase their sales to no avail. I think it is a matter of time and they disappear as well.
Sad thing is for clothing many of the boutique stores have terrible return policies. My daughter got something at Urban Barn, and was told you can only return or exchange in 2 weeks. When I begged for an exception the manager said, “NO way, no how”.