we can't lay all of the blame on these retail stores.... we helped in their demise.
Online shopping enabled a world where the goods are made somewhere else, warehoused somewhere else by mega-corporations (Amazon, Costco, Alibaba, etc), and shipped from lands far away so they contribute nothing to the local economy. No local storefront or employees are needed at all. It has almost completely replaced the local product development, manufacturing, distribution, and retail economies. So yea, maybe your "downtown" will disappear soon. No wonder the younger generation is so depressed.
Somebody else is doing the interesting stuff, while we sit on our fat keisters and tap our touchscreens to spend our borrowed money...
Reminds me of lyrics from the song "Don't Look Now" by CCR:
Who will make the shoes for your feet?
Who will make the clothes that you wear?
Who'll take the promise that you don't have to keep?
Don't look now, it ain't you or me.
Don't look now, someone's done your starvin';
Don't look now, someone's done your prayin' too.