Mall Department Stores Were Struggling. The Pandemic Has Pushed Them to the Edge of Extinction

Washington Post, April 16, 2021–Abha Bhattarai
Department stores, once a middle-class mainstay of convenience and indulgence, had been spiraling downward long before the pandemic turbocharged online shopping and helped tip a number of big-name retailers into bankruptcy. Nearly 200 department stores have disappeared in the past year alone, and another 800–or about half the country’s remaining mall-based locations–are expected to shutter by the end of 2025.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2021/04/16/half-countrys-remaining-mall-based-department-stores-are-expected-shutter-by-2025/