Where have all the stores gone?

I thought the Entertainment Book was the kiss of death for any vendor who selected to participate. Ever notice, by November when the new book appears, 10% of the places are out of business. As if this was the last ditch effort to provide a buy one get one free offer would save the restaurant from closing. Lately though, Fort Wayne, Indiana has had the Entertainment Book Blues. The closing of Instant Copy's north store was one. The Gap is closing and so is Bombay Imports (yes, it had been open all this time!!). La Hacienda closed. Bacharchs, closed. These are not closed due to weather, no snow delays or ice storms, nope, flooding has not lead the pack either. I guess the way to look at it, without office jobs, no one needed copies from Instant Copy. Without the job, they could not buy clothes from the Gap or if they were in management, from Bacharachs. Which lead to no home furnishings at Bombay and this concluded with no one needing to eat at La Hacienda. I think the real answer to the question of where and why? It lies in the Marshall Fields voodoo over the city. Without Marshall Fields the city is doomed to seven years bad luck. It is not the mirror that brings bad luck, it is the fact that broken or cut up credit cards for Marshall Fields have cursed the believers in a brighter future. We must work toward finding and bringing retail commerce to Fort Wayne. We need our Ikea store. Our large department stores. We need a Crate and Barrel. Not another Starbucks.