It happens, and corona may be the final cause of death, but in many cases it was just a last straw. There are a lot of other factors. The area I live in once comfortably supported 4-5 stores at the same time. Mostly because there were a lot of well paying industrial jobs, and the local Air Force Base. Into the 90s, there were a lot of people that were pretty well off, and could afford the hobby. And while all those airmen weren't getting rich, if you were living and eating on base and not blowing all your pay on cars, booze, or women, it was easy enough to go to the hobby shop and walk away with an armful of stuff to fill your time. Strangely enough, there were a lot of those airmen that liked plane models, for some reason...
Now, the good paying industrial jobs have disappeared, and Griffiss AFB is long closed. The local economy never recovered, and this is an economic ghetto now. A vast wasteland of chain restaurants, dollar stores, tattoo parlors, and liquor stores. Plastic models are not the only upscale luxury hobby that has suffered and disappeared; all of the scuba shops have closed up as well, for example. Want equipment, service, or training? You have to drive an hour away to Syracuse now. The demographics of the area are such now that hobbies are mostly a frivolous luxury to many that are still living here.
The last local store closed almost two years ago now. I'm surprised they made it that long, and I doubt there will be another in the time I have left. There is a Hobby Lobby, but their own kit selection has dwindled from both sides of an aisle when they opened, to less than a half of one side now. Times have changed. In many ways the hobby is having a second golden age, with the number of manufacturers, kits, and support products available. Largely though, the local store is just not part of it any more.