From a blog, which I found in my travels:

November 2

I had to make a trip out to the local asteroid belt of big box retail because our cell phone bit the dust and the local Verizon office is located at the mall there (along with the local motor vehicle bureau office, which moved from downtown last year).

The Wilton (NY) mall is a sad place these days. Besides Verizon, Sprint, and the DMV, there are half a dozen sneaker shops and as many hair salons. The remaining slots are let out to increasingly marginal purveyors of crap like Thomas Kinkade calendars, wigs, and S & M party gear. The concourse was ominously empty of shoppers.

I conclude that heartland middle America is reaching near-total retail exhaustion. And not a moment too soon, since the same group of people are now underwater in their personal finances. Their fear and anger has yet to become politicized. When it does, watch out.