The Demise of the Corner Shopping Mall As yet another aging shopping mall closes its doors for good this month, we find ourselves on the cusp of a retail revolution. Over the past year, more than 3,200 bricks-and-mortar stores across the country have shut down, and that figure is expected to climb past 8,600 before the year is out. To put this in perspective, 2008, the worst year on record for closures, saw a total of 6,163 shops go dark.

Adding salt to the wounds of struggling chains are the recent remarks of veteran investor Wayne Branson. Branson predicts a complete overhaul of the retail industry within a decade: "The world keeps changing, and today's department store lives online." Branson is putting his money where his mouth is by selling off his retail holdings. "Retail has always been a cutthroat business, and cracking the code to online success can elude even the savviest of operators," he admits.