9 department stores that once thrived a decade ago but that no longer exist

Marcio Jose Sanchez/AP Images

Clearance sale signs have been a common sight over the last several years.

• The retail apocalypse this decade claimed the lives of several major department stores, which shuttered their doors alongside popular mall brands like Delia's and Wet Seal.
• We took a look at the department stores that are no longer with us as we move into the 2020s.
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It's not an easy time to be a department store.

The past decade has proved terminal for several retailers that failed to overcome stagnating sales and dwindling foot traffic, but department stores may have been hit hardest of all. Thanks to their enormous physical spaces and particularly sluggish push toward digital innovation, institutions that were once thriving centers of commerce are increasingly falling off the already sparse retail map.

Though department stores like Macy's and Nordstrom are weathering the storm - or at least staving off a total demise - others haven't been so lucky. Bon-Ton, for example, shuttered all seven of its department store brands in 2018 after failing to find a buyer post-bankruptcy, sounding the alarm for peers dangling by a thread.

While some of these stores found new life by being absorbed into existing brands or forming an online-only presence, they will never be the same mainstays we remember from the department halcyon days.

We took a closer look at the department stores we bid adieu to in the 2010s as the retail graveyard continues to grow.