Store closures in the U.S. are proceeding at a furious pace and could hit 12,000 retail locations by the end of 2019, according to a new report by Coresight Research.  Through 15 weeks of 2019, Coresight had tracked the closings of 6,378 stores, more than the 5,864 store closures in all of 2018.

The square footage of retail space per person in the U.S. is far beyond the space in comparable economies, Coresight notes, with 23.5 square feet of retail space per person here, compared to 16.4 square feet of retail space per person in Canada and 11.1 square feet of retail space per person in Australia.

Comic and game stores appear to be bucking those overall trends, with devoted customer bases and reasons to visit the stores beyond acquiring products, such as gaming in game stores and acquiring key product information in both game and comic stores.

And there may be a bright spot in the behavior patterns of Generation Z consumers, who seem to be gravitating to brick and mortar stores according to a new report by ICSC.  Over 75% of Gen Z consumers say that shopping in physical stores is a better experience than shopping online, according to the report, with Gen Z the age cohort that visits shopping malls most often.  Gen Z consumers cite the opportunity to socialize, to physically see items and to get them immediately as their top reasons for shopping in retail stores.