What happened to ‘Location, Location, Location’ ?

The most popular mantra of retail used to be ‘Location, Location, Location’.
During pandemic times, retailers with best locations have shuttered shops or filed for bankruptcy.
Why?

New channels are coming up which were not there just a while back. For B2C, there are 2 channels that are becoming very prominent: Social media TikTok (copycats) and Gaming. A while back, we came across the below infographic which was quite surprising for us.
With the explosive growth new channels are seeing, it makes sense to have:
1. Strategy for being present on the relevant channels
2. Being nimble to capitalize on new opportunities
3. Sustain presence to entrench yourselves

The assumption of ‘location, location, location’ was ‘..where the people are’.
The minute you think from this lens, the puzzle is solved.
In that sense, the new mantra should be ‘Channel, Channel, Channel’.