You're a gamer. Yes you! Whether you play Fort Knight all day, can't quit Baldur's Gate 3, or just

brag about getting the wordle in the three, gaming is everywhere and for everyone. And for the next few weeks

on the vergecast, we're covering all the ways gaming is changing.

We're looking into how old games are made new again, how games are coming out of our TVs and into our hands,

and what's next for the biggest billion dollar games on the planet. Our series is running now and you can

listen anywhere you get your podcast. It's the Virch. It's a podcast. It's the Virch cast. See you there. There.

Today is Cyber Monday. It's a great time to get good deals online and keep on shopping for the holidays.

And this year, like last year, Cyber Monday sales are likely going to be bigger than they

were on the other big day of the post- Thanksgiving rush, Black Friday. This is all part of a trend

accelerated by the pandemic. The death of in-person retail shopping. That's

stuff you do on Block Friday.

Jason Delray, RICO's retail correspondent,

is here to talk about it.

Hey Jason.

How you doing, Teddy?

So bring me back to before the pandemic.

What was happening to the mall, the department store were what was happening to the mall the department store even before any of us

knew about COVID?

Department stores were really really struggling.

This is not a new thing in so much as it's been a slow contraction of the department store sector that's definitely gone on for the last decade and probably some signs of it even before that.

You know, the department stores in the malls, their fate is somewhat intertwined.

Department stores are often what's called the anchor tenants that sit on the outside of the malls and are charged with sort of

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