Do y’all know why we have department stores? When it was still snail mail people in small towns were secluded but needed supplies. Catalogs were delivered with things they could order. This model was then moved to having general stores in small towns with Sears and other companies racing to put themselves in as many small areas as possible. After being widely successful some moved to malls (seeing huge success in the 80s & 90s) others—refusing to change again—closed.