[dredmorbius]

I mean, Sears is still around, if barely.

Other retail giants had been seen as walking dead for decades in the 1970s and 1980s before finally falling.

Though drivers then and now may differ. Old-school retail benefitted from purchase contracts (dedicated suppliers, corporate buyers), as well as service contracts (for purchased kit). Back when durable goods might actually last 15, 20, 30 years, this meant that at least a trickle of income was still coming in. Sears rather famously botched this hard when it used its automotive repair unit to commit nationwide fraud, see in 1992: "Accusation Of Fraud At Sears" <https://www.nytimes.com/1992/06/12/business/accusation-of-fr...>.

How durable Amazon might prove under similar mismanagement in the globalised Internet age is ... an interesting question.