but the more they reduce, the less choice there is and people will end up going elsewhere; the less chance they have of having decent knowledgeable salespeople, especially for a dept like haberdashery, etc - then they really will end up closing them because they're unprofitable. But not because people don't want to buy the stuff, but because they can't get what they need there, or with good advice.
Already they tend to sell only packets of things that they used to sell by the metre, for example, or individually, because it's just easier to stock and display, and nobody has to be able to answer questions, just read the packets to you - but that's not much help if you only wanted small quantities or wanted not exactly what the big brand packets have, but more choice. You end up going online now. But it was much more helpful to be there in store and feel/see the quality, size, colour etc.