By Brandi Smith
Assessed purely by the headlines, the past few years have been a challenge for some of the nation’s largest retailers. Payless ShoeSource announced in April that it would shutter nearly 400 stores. In January, JCPenney started closing 140 locations across the country. Even mall stores have taken a hit with retailers Abercrombie & Fitch and Guess pulling the plug on 60 locations within the next year. Though many analysts cite those cases as examples of how the retail sky is falling, many Texas experts are saying, “Hold up, Chicken Little.”