There seems to be a trend in the U.S. In fact, it’s been noticeable to me every time I go to Coddingtown Mall or Santa Rosa Plaza. No longer can I walk into one of my favorite department stores and buy my favorite pair of jeans, and not be alarmed that another popular retailer I shop at isn’t going to be there the next time I have to go to the mall.

Within the last two or three years, major retailers, who have been in business for at least 15-plus years, have permanently closed their doors, making them and the shopping districts they reside in resemble ghost towns. And when you get stuck in a ghost town, there’s no telling what you’re going to find—or not find!

With the onset of the recession, it’s obvious many stores could not survive. Gottschalks, Borders, some Lowes and F.Y.E. stores and now some select Sears and Kmart have run their course and can’t turn profits. It just seems that one business after another keeps closing its doors and I’m curious as to why so many aren’t able to survive.

One reason why these companies could be going under is because they have to compete with numerous online companies, such as Amazon.com, which many consumers use as a convenient alternative to shopping in-person. At this point it seems that some major retailers really have no hope of survival, which is rather unfortunate.

You also have to consider what it takes for a successful business to survive during these hard times. There’s the cost of management and employees, marketing or advertising of the store’s products, the rental or lease of the building(s) and utilities. None of these come cheap, especially when you’ve been in business for so many years.

While strip malls and shopping centers are struggling to survive, discount stores, such as Walmart, Target and the Dollar Store seem to be thriving and unscathed by the recession. Other than the fact that most of these discount stores carry some different name brands than what you can find at a department store, consumers are going to want to pay a lot less out-of-pocket, especially now that everything is so expensive.

I grew up in Healdsburg, a small town just north of Santa Rosa. As a child, the only department store we had was JC Penney. If Penney’s didn’t have what we needed, then my mother and I would make a trip to Coddingtown. I never had a problem with shopping in Santa Rosa because the mall—eventually Santa Rosa Plaza opened its doors several years later—had many more stores to choose from, whereas in Healdsburg we only had Penney’s. Then about 21 years ago, my hometown literally turned in to a ghost town when Penney’s closed, along with a few “Mom and Pop” stores that had provided products to longtime residents for the last three decades. Many years later, I could never understand why so many new businesses in Healdsburg, which opened up during the tourism boom, would just want to cater to tourists and not to locals, who have a distinguished presence and are also a part of the community.

On a personal level, the only time that I have to shop at the mall is when I really need something. I’ve shopped online, but only to purchase books, CDs or electronics. I’ve never been comfortable with shopping online for food or clothes because I’m always afraid that I’ll be sent the wrong item and it will just be a hassle to ship the product back. And who really wants to deal with this? Certainly not me!

I dread the day when I’ll read that one of my favorite stores is closing. I just cringe thinking about what shopping will be like in the future. Will consumers, like myself, be forced to drive to the next county just to shop for necessities or will we be forced to do all of our shopping online? If and when this happens, I will not be very happy.

Late last year, the Gap and some Blockbuster stores were rumored to be shutting down their doors sometime in 2012. It’s still uncertain if Gap will, but there is truth to some Blockbuster stores closing. It’s going to be sad when this happens because the malls and shopping centers will once again look like just another ghost town. And personally speaking, I don’t want to be left without anywhere to shop.