More Empty Storefronts Coming Soon

Legendary department store Macy's, the people who've put on the huge New York City Thanksgiving Day Parade for decades, plans to close 100 stores next year.  In a graphic in the story above, it lists other major department stores that will be closing soon, as well:

Major department stores closings coming soon:
Macy's--------100 stores
J.C. Penney---- 7 stores
Sears-----------10 stores
Kohl's----------18 stores
Ralph Lauren--50+ stores

That's at least 185 major department stores that are scheduled to be closed down in late 2016 or 2017.  Why does this affect average people?  First of all, hundreds, possibly thousands of people will lose their jobs directly because of the store closings.  Secondly, most, if not all, of these stores are "anchor stores" in malls and shopping centers.  These are the stores that help keep the malls and shopping centers in business.  If the local mall starts to die, that can lead to many other smaller shops moving or going out of business.  By and large, reports say that mall traffic is down across the country.

Highpoint, North Carolina, fifteen miles from where I currently live, has a mall that's about 1/3 to 1/2 empty.  On a recent Vice channel show called Abandoned, pro skater Rick McCrank visited a mall in Northeast Ohio that's been completely abandoned and left to rot.  He also visited another mall that's largely empty, but now houses many small churches in the storefronts that thousands of shoppers used to frequent.  

Why is this happening?  Amazon.  People's shopping habits are changing, with millennials leading the charge.  

What does this mean for you?  There will probably be more empty storefronts and business buildings where you live in 2017 and beyond.  This means retail real estate will be stagnant and drop in price.  This also means that there will be a lot of opportunities all over the country to rent out these retail spaces at a much lower price and put different kinds of businesses or operations there.  Got any ideas?