There's more to big box stores closing than cherry picking Portland, more to it all like that is our system when a business big or small feels like it's not going to be pulling double digit profits any time soon.

There is no excuse for the flash mob smash and grabs that hit department stores all over the country, I highly doubt the many media stories as to how theft is the biggest cause of closing retail stores throughout the country closing down. Big or small stores. I think these stories are real but convenient substitute narratives for an actual changing retail businesses climate in the nation. Not as sexy are real economic trends in retail, such as: going to online retail shopping and delivery models, increased labor costs, supply chain issues: and WFH labor forces are all changing retail. Apparently, it's hard to see the trends for all the dead suburban shopping malls littered across the country obscuring our thinking.

No I'm not buying the shoplifting issue narrative as the main causality for the latest retail downturn, that is way too simple. It's more like systemic permanent changes in the retail industry in the US. Doesn't look like the good old days of shopping in person is coming back as a trend in the retail industry for many more reasons than shoplifting.