The Globe and Mail reports in its Tuesday edition that we should all lament the systematic erosion of the mid-tier retailer. Guest columnist Doug Stephens writes that brands and formats that once thrived are now in a fatal no man's land -- too expensive for the price-sensitive shopper trading down to Walmart, Temu or Shein; too ordinary for the affluent consumer seeking premium experiences or luxury brands. The list of casualties is long. From Sears and Hudson's Bay to specialty retailers like Cleo, Bootlegger, Bombay Company, Bowring and Pier 1, to name but a fraction of the fallen. What began as a trickle in the mid-2000s became a deluge, with retail insolvencies surging 73 per cent year-over-year by March, 2025. The mass prosperity of the 1950s, '60s and '70s gave birth to much of the retail now decaying around us. We have arrived, instead, at a world of thriving luxury malls at one end of the income spectrum and resale shops, dollar stores and discount chains at the other. Every new closing drives greater market share into the hands of already-enormous companies like Walmart and Amazon, creating a monopsony dynamic that pushes employee wages down and consumer prices up. When markets concentrate, everyone loses.