Big box stores (and malls) were killing most local downtown businesses before Amazon was a thing. The sad reality is a lot of small-scale local retail just wasn't very good. High prices, lousy selection.

It will be interesting to see what shopping patterns stay in place post-pandemic. On the one hand, even I who already shopped a lot online, have switched even more to Amazon rather than taking a run to the store for something I don't actually need right now. On the other hand, I was picking something up at an Apple Store a few days ago (for reasons) and it was a little bit surprising to me that the shopping mall was actually pretty busy.