Party City and Big Lots have both filed for bankruptcy after long periods of closing underperforming stores. The former largest party supply store in the U.S. according to a CNN report, faced heavy competition from e-commerce, big box chains, and pop-up sites like Spirit Halloween. The majority of staff had no warning of the roughly 800 stores’ closings, didn’t receive severance, and would lose all benefits.

Big Lots thought it had a plan for a sale, but that fell through. And so, the company said it would close its remaining 963 locations, as CNN noted, although it continues to look at other options like finding a buyer like Nexus by early January. Big Lots attributed high inflation and interest rates to changing customer behavior.

The closure of the two chains will likely lead to increased vacancies, particularly in malls and shopping centers, which could hit property owners hard.

All three cases suggest fundamental pressures in retail and the difficulty in adapting to market changes and financial challenges after multiple years of high inflation with product prices that haven’t, and probably won’t, recede.

That helps explain why Nordstrom Rack in the third quarter saw net sales increase 10.6% versus the same period last year, with comparable sales up 3.9%, including an 8.5% increase in the number of stores over the previous 12 months. That compares to the parent company's net sales being up 4.6% and comparable sales of 4% but no increase in stores.

Many shoppers are choosing newer and better store brands to save money as product prices reflect accumulated higher inflation, Business Insider reports. Still, containing costs isn’t enough, otherwise Big Lots might be in better financial shape.

A CoStar analysis found the “overall retail market was cold over the past year.” Some metros did well. Out of the top 10, though, nine were in the Sun Belt and one was in the Midwest. This suggests that regional approaches to retail might be an important alternative to costly national expansion strategies that could be harder to maintain, with a focus on higher-performance locations that won’t need to be culled. Retailers might focus on optimizing their real estate portfolios for better profitability.

Similarly, landlords should consider similar thoughts to create an optimum set of tenants. Unusual types of retail, for example, like the single-location outdoor clothing store Melanzana in Leadville, Colorado. They make all their own products and customers must make a shopping appointment months in advance to see the full line of goods. Mixed-use development provides multiple revenue streams. Owners will need to develop their own forms of ingenuity and innovation to succeed outside the old formula of betting on larger chains with presumed better credit and financial resources.