You're right about Target and Costco--but they are more of a "big box" experience than department stores used to be.

I'm not really lamenting the loss of stores personally, I hate shopping. But:

1. it did used to be another place where people of different classes could see one another (a "third place") and sometimes be forced to wait in line with one another, and 2. tech is all very nice but you've also cut out another class of human jobs that people used to be able to make some cash at, and could work part-time, and even enjoyed doing. I don't know your age but I knew a lot of people whose moms worked at JcPenney, part-time, for years, even past a time when they needed the money.