In Warc’s report on the “Global Retail Trend Predictions for 2014 and Beyond” report by Daymon Worldwide http://www.warc.com/News/Default.aspx, they highlight one that I think speaks volumes: The growing threat to the hypermarkets and superstores from smaller stores driven by urbanisation and increasing convenience.
I would add that this could also be fuelled by the democratisation of e-commerce skills and templates that allow smaller business units to replicate the behaviour of on-line traders to increase their service levels.
I hope this will allow more stand-alone businesses to flourish. But I may be wrong – it may just be the smaller format major brands that continue to eat up the personality of the High Street.