News last week that Macy’s Inc. would be shuttering three area stores, including the one at Chesapeake Square Mall, was said to have come as a surprise to folks at the mall, but it should have been utterly predictable given the direction of big retail in recent years.

With record numbers of Americans choosing to do their shopping online and even companies like Macy’s increasingly relying on their digital presence to pad the bottom line, the loss of Macy’s as an anchor at Chesapeake Square seems more a matter of corporations keeping up with changing consumer tastes than anything else.

There was a time when the mall was a destination for a family night out. Back then, the mall had two bookstores (both are gone, though a Family Christian Store remains), a Sears (closed in 2015), two Dillards locations (both closed in 2009), a Montgomery Ward (closed in 2001), a Piccadilly Cafeteria (closed and replaced, eventually, by the Tilted Kilt Irish Pub & Eatery) and the formerly ubiquitous Sbarro restaurant (closed in 2014).

The loss of Macy’s and this week’s announcement that American Eagle Outfitters will close after 27 years in the mall are just the latest iterations of a trend that has resulted in empty big-box malls around the nation.

There are lessons here for other retailers, along with an opportunity, especially for businesses that hope to serve the large Western Branch, Harbour View and Churchland areas.

Among the lessons: Stay flexible and offer goods and services that are not easily found online. The Cinemark theaters at Chesapeake Square are a great example of those lessons taken to heart. Even as the mall suffered, Cinemark built a new facility with state-of-the-art technology, and it stays busy, regardless of what’s happening in the mall that shares a parking lot with it.

Of course, a community can support only so many theaters, and retailers face a different set of challenges. But the lessons are the same. Those retailers that offer something folks can’t easily find online and give them an experience that makes visiting the store worthwhile will continue to thrive. Those that keep the experience fresh will have a long lifespan.

For Suffolk retailers, there’s an opportunity. As Chesapeake Square struggles to find its niche market in the changing consumer landscape, both Harbour View and the downtown area will become viable and palatable options for folks who want to shop in bricks-and-mortar stores but do not want to tangle with the traffic of the Greenbrier area or the tolls on the way to Norfolk and Virginia Beach.

To entice those consumers to come to Suffolk, economic development officials will need to work to attract a mix of both big-box and boutique retailers, and the city will need to make a concerted effort to tell its story both inside its borders and throughout Hampton Roads.

City officials like to say, “It’s a good time to be in Suffolk.” Considering the struggles at nearby Chesapeake Square Mall, that’s true now more than ever. But folks won’t know it if they’re not told.