MACY’S store in Westminster in slated for closure this spring (Tribune photo).

There’s been a lot of grim news these days. The wildfires and the grief and damages they have inflicted on many people in the Los Angeles area certainly constitutes the greater of the grim tidings.

However, on a less jarring note, there’s a slow(er) passing of things once held dear.

It seems like every time you pick up a newspaper – for the few that do so – or scan the online news or what passes for local news on the TV – you learn that one more store or restaurant or entertainment venue– has gone under, or is just about to sink forever.

Most recently, we have seen announcements about the Kohl’s department store chain closing 27 stores and Macy’s planning to shutter 66 of its own, including the one in Westminster Mall by April or May.

That last bit of bad news cuts the deepest. The Mall was first opened in 1974 back in the day when enclosed all-weather malls were the heart and soul of American retailing.

Times have changed and the only location likely to open in the future would be located in Greenland.

The bigwigs all claim they are closing these “underperforming” stores in order to concentrate on the ones who are doing better – which probably means not quite as badly.

We’ve seen this pattern before. It’s been preceded by identical management pronouncements on Mervyn’s, Sears, Bed Bath and Beyond and a dozen other traditional retailers.

The suspect in this massacre of marketing is clear: online shopping. amazon.com and other such operations are eating the lunch of the brick-and-mortar stores and emptying out malls and creating lots of work for demolition companies.

In Westminster, there’s a plan to turn the mall into a mixed use operation with 1,000 new housing units adjacent to the retail core of four major department store.

But the demise of Macy’s will complicate the future of the re-branded “Bolsa Pacific” project.

JC Penney appears to be hanging on, but for how long? Such a departure would leave the center with just one big store, a two-story Target.

That latter chain has been able to survive the onslaught of Amazon by borrowing ideas from it. “Tar-zhay” has a huge selection of goods at good prices and married that with some very nice fashions and its own robust online inventory.

The rumbling of a sea change isn’t just in retail. Chain sit-down restaurants are under a lot of pressure. Well-known names such as The Red Lobster and Chili’s are in the discussion of “how long can they hang on”?

Such a list goes on and on. What’s to be done? Can anything be done?

So-called experts don’t seem to know. And don’t ask me. If I had any special insights into this, why didn’t I buy Target stock at $7 a share?

Jim only goes to Macy’s to see the holiday decorations.