It's almost extinct.

while many are headed toward extinction. The American middle class continues to be under siege by the wealthiest and the drumpf deplorables that are too stupid to know when they are being royally screwed.

The One to watch is WalMart in the next Business quarter. Looking more and more they are about to report some bad numbers both sales and profits.

Their Parking lots have been pretty empty other than the first of the month. BTW,here in Vegas,I believe there will be only C-Stores and possible one Regular Grocrey Store that will be open 24/7 after next week.

There is always more than one reason. Aging Baby Boom Generation who simply don’t need more stuff, technology changes, management mistakes and short sightedness, hedge fund buyouts, young people loaded with student debts, decades of stagnant wages, the Amazon factor and likely many that I certainly missed.

technology changes, management shortsightedness, hedge funds, young people loaded with student debt, decades of stagnant wages and Amazon all affect middle class wages down.

even jeans which are a casual clothing item aren't worn as much because a lot of people just wear comfortable things like leggings, yoga pants etc.

it's one reason the high end very expensive jeans went out of business. it was a short term trend with jeans a hundred dollars and rising but didn't last.

many jobs will allow more casual wear and with changes in technology people can work from home at times also.

and places like Target actually have some nice clothes which don't cost much. and they get designers to do special lines for the store which are affordable compared to their usual stuff.

also many department stores started to sell a bunch of crappy things . stores didn't look as nice anymore .

i think they could maybe improve if they make some changes and do a few things like they use to do in the old days. i would say service would be a big thing but it would involve hiring more people and they probably don't want to do that.

I live near a dying mall, and all you have to do is look around at the product and see why it is dying. They seem to think that the customers are stupid. For example, the only department stores left sell a lot of cheap-looking matronly clothes with ugly patterns. I wouldn't wear any of it. Older people don't wear pink and purple "old people" clothes like they used to. Hell, my ninety-something grandmother dressed better than that.

And for the younger people, a lot of the stuff shows too much skin and has a lot of glitter and sparkly stuff on it. Not exactly stuff you can wear to work or to a nice dinner or church or whatever.

These stores have serious problems with their buyers.

And I don't think it even appeals much to teens like that used to either.

There's nothing that gets me to go into the mall. It's clothing or style related. Even the restaurants aren't enough to make me want to go there since I know they're higher priced than the standalone versions elsewhere in the area.

I used to love going to the mall. There'd be a bunch of different places I'd go and get things from. The only reason I'm there now is because the movie theater is attached to it. And that doesn't get me into the mall itself.

or jewelry and they say "Thanks! I got it at Target." And a lot of them are people who can afford to pay higher prices for clothing and accessories. People are becoming "value" shoppers. They won't pay top dollar for cheap, poorly made junk anymore.