The front-page article “A shadow of itself” in the Mirror’s Aug. 16-17 edition “painted” a sad, unwanted picture of a local retail giant — the Logan Valley Mall — now experiencing a deeply troubled existence and a pessimistic future.

The situation is not unlike the “road” that other locally familiar malls — current and former — have traveled, or the bumpy “highway” on which some currently are struggling and, in the end, could be facing doom.

Remember the bustling years of Logan Valley and the mecca status it enjoyed? It was exciting to shop there all year long because of its excellent menu of stores, while also offering a particularly fun experience in the days and weeks leading up to Christmas.

The same was true for suburban Johnstown’s Richland Mall, now just a distant memory, while its once-

successful successor, the Johnstown Galleria, now, like Logan Valley, is but a skeleton of its former self, with most of its anchor stores gone.

Remember one of Logan Valley’s more-distant competitors, Greensburg’s Greengate Mall, which succumbed to a wrecking ball, with its Greensburg competitor, Westmoreland Mall, having endured anchor-store demise, but currently on some degree of life support, thanks to the presence of a casino.

The list could go on to places like Washington, Pa., and Uniontown, but you get the picture: Malls remain in trouble because of a different retail atmosphere than what formerly existed — the decades during which they were enjoying their heyday.

Blame it on the rise and popularity of currently blockbuster shopping venues like Amazon, Home Shopping Club and QVC and myriad other online and telephone shopping opportunities that offer their tempting advertised bargains that purportedly meet shoppers’ needs and busy schedules.

That alone is not bad — from shoppers’ vantage points.

But in the end, the diminishing support for local stores and the merchants who own and/or operate them has had a detrimental effect, not only to the stores and malls and other shopping centers but also to the local economy as a whole.

When the retail environment suffers, so do the tax coffers that help pay for the many good things that the Altoona area enjoys and could be enjoying.

Some area shoppers who formerly spent many hours at the Logan Valley Mall will be quick to place blame for the mall’s current condition on its owners’ failure to keep the mall vibrant by keeping up with needed repairs when problems were small and more easily manageable.

They’re probably not wrong in many respects, but the effort to place blame should not overlook the many thousands of other “elements” that, in fact, are deserving of some degree of criticism for what has come to pass. We’re referring to the shoppers themselves who’ve abandoned local mall and shopping center stores, spending their money instead on the “modern” buying opportunities that many times fulfill shoppers’ wants but, also, many times do not.

Shopping locally allows seeing products and determining immediately whether or not a product should be purchased, without the disappointment inherent in buying something and having to ship it back for any number of reasons.

When debating whether to buy something locally, even if possibly for a couple of dollars more, it’s wise to factor in the costs and inconvenience of having to return an online or TV item that doesn’t meet expectations and the time wasted in making another purchase to replace the original one.

That might make a great exercise for the upcoming holiday season.