Essentially correct.
The fact we have more retail space, isn't all that important, because I would expect the largest consumer market in the world, would equally have the largest amount of retail space. Even in Canada, why would stores be comparable to the US, when Canadian buyers have less money to buy stuff? It's not the same amount of disposable income, thus not the same size more, thus smaller stores. Basic economics.
But the problem in the US was in the 70s, 80s, 90s, the goal was more customers through larger selections, more variety, more eye-candy. So stores got larger and larger.
Unfortunately, the internet screwed that up, because the size of the store on the internet is essentially unlimited. I can find nearly every product in existence, and see it from 20 different angles, from my chair.
How does any store even attempt to compete with that? Well it can't. That's all there is to it.
This is why even the stores now have a large internet based selection. I can find hundreds more products at Walmart online, than in the store.
The days of the big box stores, in the massive malls in coming to a close.
While that's good for people like me, I hate going to stores at all, for anything.... I'm not sure if that's good for society as a whole.
We are increasingly becoming a nation of isolated individuals, which I think is why mental illness is constantly on the raise, and we people engage in self-destructive behaviors.
And this is one example. No one will even have the limited interaction of going to the store. Which wouldn't be an issue if people got interaction somewhere. But they don't.
Not sure what, or even if, there is a solution to that, or even if our screwed up culture wants a solution.
