As someone who has worked for a startup in this space, I understand the sentiment of this article. Shopping malls desire anchor stores to be the driving force o

As someone who has worked for a startup in this space, I understand the sentiment of this article. Shopping malls desire anchor stores to be the driving force of footfall traffic. Those stores are very keen on knowing the spending power of where they operate which the malls use survey data to collect that information. When the profile of stores change in the mall, it changes the spending power of people visiting. That in turn can cause those anchor stores to relocate elsewhere. Retail is suffering right now. High street brands in the UK are collapsing with HMV in just the past week. Mike Ashley (Sports Direct CEO) has called to tax online retailers to make it a level playing field for the high street[1]. I personally disagree because I honestly don't think the retail experience is helping themselves to innovate and train staff correctly (at least in the UK). When visiting shops becomes a frustrating experience for the consumer, then no wonder people turn to shopping online for convenience. I think the article is saying that if things continue on their trend, it will get a lot worse before it gets better. https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/dec/03/mike-ashley-wants-tax-on-retailers-with-online-sales-of-more-than-20-per-cent-sports-direct https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/dec/03/mike-ashley-...