Despite all the numbers the business scene did not reflect it and it seemed investors were scared the whole time to really do some serious investing especially after 2018 yet when you go to the 'dying malls' I saw more shopping bags in people's hands THEN ANYTIME UNDER OBAMA! Under Obama you could count on your hands how many had shopping bags vs Trump. Most just windowed shopped.
Under Trump we had one of the best economies ever since the 1960s YET simultaneously we had more retail stores go under where at one point every week it seemed a new set of stories was either closing or companies filing bankruptcy in record numbers. It actually seemed like a race to see who could file chapter 11 the fastest! Some blamed Trump for it but he did the right things to keep businesses going so we should've had NEW businesses enter and malls expand like the early 00s Republican economy.
Many called it the 2016 retail crisis which is when it started and 2018 had a record amount of store closings. I don't for ONE moment believe it's online as we have had online all the way back to 08 where mass people bought stuff yet stores survived till 2017. For department stores one possible scenario is at least here they all got into gang punk clothing which families did NOT want so I wonder if the left gave kickbacks in the Obama years to certain businesses that under Trump the kickbacks were no longer valid?
Now that Bitten has won we haven't had a single new closure compared to 2018: yet we can't get any new openings here either but that may be just in Oregon issue as outside of our state you immediately run into more choices and better quality/quanity at the same stores at least during the Trump era not so sure now. Oregon gets the shaft!
No.
Malls have been a dying segment of retail since the early 00's. US capacity was overbuilt and there was an emphasis in malls particularly to "slash and burn", building new malls that cause old ones to fail.
To understand retail you have to take a more comprehensive look over a long period of time. Prior to the 50's, retail consisted of local businesses and catalog order. Catalog could get you anything, eventually.
After WW2, with efficient manufacturing and distribution, malls and chain department stores appear. This is because it became practical to produce so much surplus and deliver it so efficiently that you could offer all your wares at multiple locations. Catalogs held on though until the 90's, although increasingly as a service to the underserved markets.
Malls escalated this further, offering chain businesses the ability to have more locations with smaller footprints. But malls came with some pretty serious transportation and socioeconomic implications and effects. As Chris Rock put it: "Every town got two malls: they got the white mall, and the mall white people used to go to." It's funny of course because it's true and everyone knows it.
Big box stores, the old mid century department stores, evolved in two distinct varieties. The first was discounters. Walmart epitomized this, leaning hard into reducing margin costs. They were successful in this and Walmart has frankly done more to reduce poverty than it has to create it.
The other direction was the category killer. This would be your Toys'R'Us (and Toys'R'Us was profitable without the debt of the leveraged buyout) or Home Depot, etc. They focus in one sector and try to dominate, and this model too is pretty successful.
But the internet is the new player. The internet is like Sears Roebuck of old, but with one key difference. It can get you stuff pretty damn fast. Delivery to your door in a couple days is usually an arrangement people can accept to get exactly what they want.
Retail has to cope with that, and it's difficult.
A detailed and sane reply.
Too bad OP is off his meds and won't be able to understand