Retailing has been disrupted by several trends. Chains such as Menards are more efficient than the independents that sold the same goods a generation ago. Labor-intensive department stores have lost market share, and e-commerce accounts for more than 7 percent of U.S. retail sales.

Those effects are magnified in a slow-growing region such as St. Louis. If we’re not adding many residents, we don’t need more people to sell us stuff.

Paul Fusz, a vice president at real-estate brokerage CBRE, calls St. Louis a “very slow growth” retail market. His firm counts nearly 150 million square feet of store space in the region, a figure that has grown 9 percent in the past decade.

Most recent growth is from what Fusz describes as “dense, infill development,” as opposed to new shopping centers on the fringes of the region. By definition, these stores draw business away from existing shops.

That’s not a bad thing, Fusz emphasizes.

“There’s always going to be turnover in the retail world,” he said. “The strong get stronger and the weak go away.”