Do you remember JCPenney? Belk? Hecht's? Well, you might but surely your kids don't. Department stores have been dying and nearly dead for many years now. Which is why Amazon is reportedly pulling out the big guns and opening a series of—wait for it—department stores!

Amazon Plans to Open Large Retail Locations Akin to Department Stores

A "large retail location akin to a department store" is... just a department store, right?

But I digress.

Some of the first Amazon department stores are expected to be located in Ohio and California, the people said. The new retail spaces will be around 30,000 square feet, smaller than most department stores, which typically occupy about 100,000 square feet, and will offer items from top consumer brands. The Amazon stores will dwarf many of the company's other physical retail spaces and will have a footprint similar to scaled-down formats that Bloomingdale's Inc., Nordstrom Inc. and other department-store chains have begun opening, the people said.

The socio-economic implications of this decision could prove very consequential, not the least of which might be a revitalization of the "mall" form of shopping that peaked around the 1980s before beginning a long, slow death sequence that is still ongoing today. Maybe Amazon will begin taking over old defunct Marshall Field's locations and giving malls a much-needed boost.

Not everyone was happy about the news:

That's all fair game. Still, the possibilities here seem tantalizing: If Amazon successfully brings back the department store, what else will it revitalize in the near future? Cinnabon? Tower Records? Waldenbooks?

Well, maybe not Waldenbooks.

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P.S. – I'm not sure if Amazon stores will sell Bigfoot costumes, but if they do, you could recreate this parent fail from a 6-year-old's birthday party: