I recently moved to France, and see the same in the towns around here. Small towns that have a mall or hypermarket close by are invariably dead. Interestingly,

I recently moved to France, and see the same in the towns around here. Small towns that have a mall or hypermarket close by are invariably dead. Interestingly, I visited Sete, which has a mall and hypermarket about 15km away, and the town center is vibrant and alive. I certainly think that this phenomena is mostly due to the availability of malls.