Beyond coal miners, America's real jobs crisis
Situated just off Interstate 70 in Ohio’s Belmont County, between Pittsburgh and Columbus, the Ohio Valley Mall is well positioned for attracting drive-by shoppers and motorists in need of a pit stop. “We have a lot of people traveling through,” says Mark Thomas, the president of the county’s board of commissioners.
That geographical advantage hasn’t spared it from a wave of store closures, however. This year, Ohio Valley Mall has lost K-Mart, an Elder-Beerman department store, appliance dealer HHGregg, and MC Sports, a sporting goods chain that declared bankruptcy in February.
There’s some good news. The mall so far has kept both its Macy’s and its Sears, despite those two chains shuttering hundreds of stores nationwide. Replacements, including a Marshalls and a Levin Furniture, are moving in. Still, as a result, several dozen jobs in the suburban county have disappeared in the space of a few months. “We were hit pretty hard in the spring,” says Mike Schlanz, the director of Ohio Means Jobs, an occupational training and placement program in Belmont County. But he says that some of the surrounding areas, without highway access, have fared even worse.
A similar phenomenon is happening all across the country. An estimated 5,300 retail locations have closed through June 20, according to one estimate – nearly triple the rate from a year ago. That makes 2017 poised to surpass the number of closings in 2008, in the depth of the Great Recession.
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https://www.csmonitor.com/Daily/2017/20170804/Beyond-coal-miners-America-s-real-jobs-crisis?src=shared
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America's job crisis isn't in coal, it's at Kohl's! 
But the republicans and vulture capitalists are getting rich off shutting down all these stores, so who cares? 
Well, when we can no longer afford to live, I know where we'll be seeking shelter! 
People who work multiple jobs do not want to waste precious time wandering in and out of stores that pretty much all have the same stuff.. Teens no longer get summer jobs or after school jobs, so they don;t have money...
The "shopping generation" is getting old, and we don't have extra money to waste.
When malls were the "new thing", we were in our prime shopping years ..with young families and for many of us, we were stay-at-home Moms for at least 5-10 years, so we shopped.. Times have changed..and so have shopping habits..
I now shop at Amazon
I fact, just last week I bought an Italian stovetop from a company in Hartford Connecticut (it arrives on my front porch next Monday), and I bought an Italian sink from a distributor in Texas..It arrived in 4 days..The faucet came from Michigan.. We are getting rather frail in our old age, so I appreciate not having to mess with hauling heavy things, or having to pay extra to have stuff delivered.
The unfortunate thing is that so many lower paid folks will no longer have jobs in retail, but retail has always been subject to the whims of customers, and they (we) are fickle.. It sucks to be in retail and to have to plan what to buy, only to find out that people want a different style, color, whatever...and then have to mark stuff down so you have room for the next batch of stuff you ordered..
I prefer to buy local, but when you live in a small community , you don't have many choices..
We also buy from the many antique stores here as well. I got a gorgeous mahogany dresser (circa 1920) for $420...new ones are cheaply made and would have cost more..
Haven't been inside a mall in over 10 years..
