My city (or rather, a group of very close ~3 cities) is not huge by any means, but it isn't small either. We have several malls, and except for the 2 or 3 that are largest and strictly in the center - all of them decline strongly over the last few years. Many of them had a har time in the covid years, people used to flock to them before, and through and after - never returned in full strength.

Small/independent businesses took a huge hit, and many of those simply closed or moved elsewhere, looking for 'new store in the block' effect. Those who are left are mostly big franchises/networks.

We spoke to shops assistants on some occasions, and many of those do not really profit much and are kept only for the prestige, or at least that's what the staff says. People from the shops that were closed said that huge amount of customers just walked in to see the products live by their own eyes, see which ones they like, talk with the staff about this and that, and then .. didn't buy. They bought them later online. Some even walked out of the store, sat at the bench in the hall, and bought the products online via mobile app.

Why? Because it was more convenient, delivery straight to home, all data/addresses/payments already in the mobile, no need grab&carry, no need to stay in queue/count cash/tell address.

And what does it mean to the shop? No actual profit. Because the shop is a separate entity from the online store, and the sale counted for the online store, not for the shop the customer visited. And that's assuming the customer bought it in the same market network. They could've found the same thing a few bits cheaper elsewhere, and didn't care where they saw it live.

Fortunately groceries, bakeries, and all other food stuff are still mostly not online, and those are disappearing at much slower rate