It’s been a hard couple of years for Chesapeake Square Mall.

Fighting the same battle over changing shopping trends that malls across the nation have been losing for years, Chesapeake Square has suffered from the growth of social media as a mode of social contact, from the rise of online shopping as a first choice for many shoppers and from the decentralization of shopping patterns.

The days of the mall being the hot spot for hangouts for young people are long gone. The days of the mall being the place to go for the latest fashions — or even the best back-to-school deals — are similarly lost to history. And the days of people wanting to spend hours inside a closed building wandering from store to store are the stuff of memories.

The changing times have been tough for Chesapeake Square.

Several retailers have closed their Chesapeake Square locations in recent years. The mall’s Family Christian Bookstore will close soon, along with the rest of the chain.

Macy’s closed its Chesapeake Square location in 2016, as did Sears in 2015. The mall was headed into foreclosure in April 2016 with an outstanding loan of $61.7 million, according to real estate analytics firm Trepp LLC.

But last week brought a bit of good news: J.C. Penney, one of the mall’s biggest and longest-tenured retailers, will remain open at this location, even as the store’s parent company shutters 138 of its locations around the country as part of a restructuring aimed at making the company more competitive in this era of online shopping.

“We believe closing stores will also allow us to adjust our business to effectively compete against the growing threat of online retailers,” a company press release stated.

For their part, mall officials are trying to make the best of Chesapeake Square’s troubles.

“As is the case with most retail properties, there is periodic turnover,” General Manager Ed Zivic said in a recent press release addressing recent closures. “We view this as an opportunity to enhance our retail offerings.”

We’ll see.

Western Branch and North Suffolk, especially, have a great stake in the success of the mall or its potential, eventual successor. We’ll take all the good news in this regard that we can get.