Shopping in stores like Target, Macy’s has become a miserable experience

Online shopping has obviously made a huge dent, ("dent" is a charitable word) in brick-and-mortar shopping. I think that most stores have pivoted from placing their best foot forward for the discerning customer, to basically being last-chance, inefficient warehouses of crap that people won't purchase online. It's become common knowledge now that if you really want something, and you want good quality, then you stay home and you purchase it on the Web, and deal with the hassles of waiting, shipping, and returns at home.

I've actually got a theory that there are "ghost stores"; they are retail stores of well-known name and repute, often on blighted properties, that sell nothing but unwanted merchandise. It may look attractive on the shelf, but it's always the wrong size, an unfashionable style or color, or it's been discontinued and you'll never find parts for it. There's a Big 5 nearby that perfectly fits this description, and every time I go shopping there I have an absurd creepy feeling, like any purchase is a mistake.

Furthermore, brick-and-mortar stores have become hangouts for independent online vendors who are practicing arbitrage. This really got noticed during the pandemic. Those people shopping in those stores are not really customers. They are sellers who are building their inventory. Other times, they are shoppers who are there on behalf of an online customer who is ordering delivery. It's rather ridiculous if you imagine that most of the people occupying a given store at any given time are not the end-customers anymore, but that's just a fact of life now.

Given both of the above related factors, most stores don't really need to offer a pleasant or enjoyable customer shopping experience anymore, they just need to show people merchandise that they can grab off the shelves and hopefully make a transaction before running out the door.