Maybe this rotting out of the middle retail is just more pronounced in California, but yeah, going to a normal department store, or smallish local in-town store to get CLOTHES seems like quaint anachronism. And Target pretty much is the closest thing to that kind of department store -- they are cheap and cheerful, so they've cleaned up by catering to bargain hunters and people with more money who like to save money on some things so they can buy luxury goods elsewhere.

Some towns in rural areas still have department stores of manageable size with good prices -- we went to one called Reny's in Rockland, Maine last month and had fun picking out a few things.