In a small Oklahoma city with a growing inventory of retail space, a 24,000-square-foot building sits vacant since October and without a new tenant, weeds are beginning to poke through the asphalt parking lot.

The shift from brick and mortar retail to online shopping is a national trend having an impact at a much smaller scale. Traditional business models are being disrupted in a process that’s been dubbed “The Retail Apocalypse.”

In smaller communities like Stillwater, Oklahoma, cities are report dips in sales tax revenue — the city’s April sales tax numbers were down for the fifth straight month in a row — and space in shopping centers sits empty even as more stores announce closures.

Online retail has seen consistent double-digit growth over the past decade and eaten up retail market share, hurting malls and shopping centers, according to a report by investment website The Motley Fool.

“The disruption of internet retail exposes the fact that maybe there has been too much retail out there,” Nicholas Rossolillo wrote in an April 29 story for the site. “Stores are closing and the industry is consolidating into fewer players.”

He says that may be good news for those retailers left standing but it’s bad news for people in smaller towns and isolated areas who have fewer shopping options and worse news for cities that rely on sales tax revenue.

Business Insider reported in March that one of the biggest waves of retail closures in recent years was underway, with more than 3,500 stores nationwide expected to close in the next few months.

Department stores like Macy’s, Sears, Kmart and JC Penney announced they would be closing less profitable locations, including Stillwater’s JC Penney store.

Ascena Retail Group, which owns Ann Taylor, Loft, Lane Bryant, Justice, Catherine’s, Maurice’s and Dress Barn announced in June that it would be closing at least 250 but possibly up to 650 stores over the next two years, including Stillwater’s Dress Barn, which closed June 24.

Ascena CEO David Jaffe told investors during a conference call that the company has seen “persistent traffic decline” in its stores, according to a United Press International report.

Bankruptcies are also prompting store closures.

Payless ShoeSource announced it would shutting down stores after it filed bankruptcy last spring.

Teen retailer Rue 21 has filed for bankruptcy and will be closing 12 of its 31 Oklahoma stores, including its Bartlesville and Stillwater locations. The company has more than 1,000 stores nationwide and will be closing 400 of them.

Like Stillwater’s JC Penney, which announced several months ago that it would be closing, Rue 21 is in the process of clearing out its inventory before shutting its doors permanently.

All the closures add to Stillwater’s inventory of vacant retail space.

When JC Penney closes it’s location in this Oklahoma city at the end of July, it will leave more than 33,000 square feet of prime retail space empty.

Lakeview Pointe, an open air mall anchored by Petco, Best Buy and Belk, lists five spaces totaling more than 20,000 square feet as available for lease.

It’s part of a new reality that cities in Oklahoma and across the nation are adjusting to. Like many, Stillwater has seen a consistent downward trend, which troubles city officials because Oklahoma towns rely almost exclusively on sales tax for their operating budgets.

City of Stillwater Chief Financial Officer Melissa Reames said in April that sales tax makes up 67 percent of the city’s general fund revenue.

“Certainly, the playing field has changed,” she said. “The internet has changed retail strategy. A few things can be done, such as expand the taxable base, which is to lower the tax exemptions and enhanced compliance as far as auditing sales remitted.”

Although internet retailer Amazon has agreed to voluntarily collect and remit sales tax in Oklahoma, it’s too early to tell how much that will help cities like Stillwater.

For now, they have little choice but to tighten their belts as the retail business reinvents itself.

Charles writes for the Stillwater, Oklahoma News Press.