And that's...good. Shops are only good to have in your town insofar as they let you buy stuff more easily and cheaply. As soon as they no longer served that purpose, the labor and real estate was being wasted. Now that those businesses have shut down, the real estate is available for more productive uses and the workers are free to do something that is more useful to society. Your locality is that much better off for it, especially the poorest people, since they can obtain goods and services more cheaply.
I disagree. My locality is not better off. The centre of my town now nearly consist of fashion and coffee shops. And people working there are not more useful to society. They are selling nothing I need. I'd like to actually be able to purchase things that I use locally. The local society looses skills and functions. No service on broken parts, no local knowledge, well, except for fashion knowledge and his to package a latte.
