My dad worked for an anchor tenant when i was in highschool. 7/10 of his stores were in malls with only the big box stores, nothing in the small store fronts

I've noticed here over the past few decades malls are closing but it started with the poorer (downtown) malls in the 90s and are closing almost perfectly along economic lines.

There are still some malls but the ones thriving seem to be fairly affluent, with Nordstrom & Coach stores. All the "middle class" malls look increasingly vacant and liminal, and the "poor" malls already closed.

There are replacement "lifestyle centers" and whatnot now, but the iconic mall from the 80's is essentially dead. Most of them only had anchor tenants (Macy's, Kohls, Dillards, Sears, JC Penny's) 15 years ago when i was in highschool, and that trend has not gotten better.