Specialty retailers have had an impact, but mall developers have gotten creative and figured out how to make their property more attractive to consumers as well as making it a different attraction than 20 years ago. According to John Konarski, senior vice president of research at the International Council of Shopping Centers, the recent closings do not signal the demise of anchor stores. Stores are reconfiguring, so this wasn't totally unexpected. The stores that closed were poor performing stores. If they're not great stores, they're hurting the retailer and they're hurting the shopping center.
Retailing is Darwinian survival of the fittest.
According to Konarski, every mall would love to have a Nieman Marcus or Nordstrom's. However, the competition mall anchors face has caused anchors to adjust their product mix. Many mall anchors once carried furniture, electronics and appliances, but big-box retailers have taken those markets away and forced traditional anchors to reconfigure their offerings. We're still building malls, but the pace at which we build them has greatly slowed. Malls have only been around for roughly 40-50 years.