I read through this earlier today. Really interesting. Rings true to me, at least for many US dept stores, but I’m far from an expert.
In 1985, US department stores took 14.5% of all retail spend. Last year they took 4.3%. The figure is still falling. The internet is often blamed for this. But the blunt truth is that US department stores just aren’t very good retailers. In fact, most of them are abysmal.