Carpenter, plumber, electricians and similar tradesmen about half of them work for or run a small to medium business where I live.

Dentists, hairdressers, lawyers also come to mind.

There are a lot of machine shops that are small businesses too.

Microbreweries, restaurants, candy shops, bakeries, local hardware store.

I use them frequently. Up until 2 years ago, I lived in a town where I could’ve walked to all those spots(not candy store).

There are a lot of farms around here, and thus a lot of farmer’s markets. There’s a lot of craft breweries, and the downtown core has recently been gentrified so there are a ton of small businesses there. A witchy store, a book store, a jewellery store, a collectibles store, a coffee roastery, a barber shop, a piercing/tattoo parlour, and don’t get me started on the restaurants.

There’s been a lot of investment in the area to make it walkable, and I’ve seen a huge uptick in tourists since it looks so appealing now.

I try to buy local if I can, but like you say, it’s not always possible, and often comes with an attractive price tag.

The things that I feel matter are supporting local farms and food markets, as well as local businesses. I’d rather support my local dentist than a national chain. I’d rather buy my veg from the Saturday farmers market than from the grocery store, when able. Keeping the money local does play a part in maintaining the local economy. Most of our purchases wind up shipping money out of our community, so I try where I can to plug the leak.

I’m also a small business, so it’s important to show my support for others.

Only buying things that are the lowest price has many consequences and not all of them are beneficial to you. Sometimes it’s just that the thing you are buying for the lowest price is crappy and poor quality. But now we are coming to realize that one of those consequences might be the destruction of the world. Figure out how to price that consequence into your economic model, and choose accordingly.

Apparently not destroying the world is more valuable to some people than others. Personally, I would pay at least 1000% more to not destroy the world, because not destroying the world is really important to me. Maybe it’s not as important to other people, I don’t know. The wonderful thing about the world we are destroying is that everyone gets to make their own decisions.

Depends on what it is. Like for pizza, I do go to the big chains sometimes but I prefer the local pizza places more. But the prices are insane!

Pizza place down the road wants $30 for a simple large pepperoni pizza. But Dominos will only charge me around $12 for the same size pizza with more toppings.

A local Mexican restaurant does pizzas and I’ve been going there more because their pizzas are the absolute best I’ve ever tasted and they’re cheap at around $10 for a large. You simply cannot beat it any way you try.

But it’s hard because of this. Either local places are too expensive or just aren’t as convenient. I hate to say it, but it’s convenient to go into a place like Walmart and get both groceries and electronics and furniture all in the same trip, not to mention the cheaper prices. But there’s also other factors too like peace of mind. I bought some clothes from Target recently in another city and took them back for a refund to my local Target and had no grief. Also, if I don’t have the receipt, they have the ability to look up my card and find my purchase and refund. I also have peace of mind knowing they have blanket policies they follow. 90 days means 90 days for all their stores.

Whereas a local place may tell you 7 days, but is it really? Some places can be more lenient and go beyond the 7 days and some will pretend they never made such a promise. Such is the case for this place down the road from me that is a small, locally owned outlet place that resells stuff and they tell you 7 days and tell other people a different policy and then sometimes don’t honor it at all. Even if one of the Targets denies my return, I’ll go across town and try another Target and maybe get an employee who just doesn’t give a shit and get my stuff done. Happened to me with a bank and a manager who was doing some illegal shit and not letting me withdraw my money. I reported her and the bank and they did get investigated and eventually apologized to me for the manager, but that was months later. And the point was that I went across town and did my legal transaction without issues there. A local bank with one branch could have denied me and I’d have been out and waiting on the government or a lawyer to strongarm them into doing what they legally are supposed to do.

And another thing I realized years ago is that I as a minority may have issues in small towns where they don’t like people who look like me. Local restaurant legally can’t not serve me because they’re racist pricks but may do something like jack up the prices on me or be rude to me to discourage me from staying. But try that in a chain like Dennys and corporate will knock that shit off quick. They don’t want lawsuits and the negative publicity that comes with it all and will fire those racist pricks from representing their brand. I have peace of mind knowing that I can go into a Walmart and less likely to deal with discrimination. Though….the recent news about large chains wanting to make “personalized”/surge pricing is one of those downsides that a local place will likely never be able to do because they don’t have the technology for it or the manpower to maintain such a system.

Conclusion for me has been that I’m grateful both exist. But online retailers like Amazon I think are a bigger threat we should be worried about. Your local government can do something about both local and big businesses but can’t do much about online retailers fucking you over. And online retailers are causing brick and mortar to close at larger rates than ever before. It’s depressing seeing so many businesses, both small and big, close down and shopping malls become ghost towns.

Lots of professional services are run out of small businesses - doctor’s offices, law firms, plumbers, electricians, auto mechanics, etc.

For me it’s usually niche things and like you mentioned, ethnic foods and local restaurants. There is a tea and coffee shop near me that sells locally roasted coffee, and a plethora of loose leaf teas. The farmers market when open is a great for produce and some nick knacks. We have a co-op that has a little market in it where I’ve purchased yarn and knitting supplies.

I don’t explicitly try to shop small stores or local, but a lot of the big box options have highlighted in recent years just how shitty they are, and I avoid those places as much as I can. I am financially stable, so I do have the luxury of being able to choose where I buy groceries without breaking the bank, and that’s not lost on me. I haven’t been to Target since they caved on DEI, Walmart just a few times in the last couple of years since sometimes it’s the only option, Amazon maybe twice for the same reason as Walmart.

It’s not been the easiest transition and in some cases it’s more expensive, but I’ve also cut some things like buying PepsiCo products regularly and not replacing with an alternative.

The only small businesses I care of is when it comes to lawyers, psychologists, doctors, car repair shops and other professions similar to them.

Call me a capitalist or whatever, but almost any other small business I go to shop in, their prices are absurd and somehow worse than the big-chain stores is. Their staff could either be some of the nicest people you meet, operated by a family or they can be the opposite where the family don’t know what the hell they’re doing and they try ripping you off and getting involved in their drama.

I shop from small businesses when it’s more convenient (which is actually more common than you’d think when you don’t have a car).

Mini markets are closer than supermarkets and stay open longer so I’ll often get groceries from there even if it’s more expensive.

When looking for a specific piece of equipment there are some things that can’t be delivered or they’d take an eternity to arrive so I find which stores sell it and go to the physical store, which is usually a smaller local place.

I don’t know if thrift shops count as small businesses but they’re also more convenient than going to big clothes shops.

And I guess most restaurants are local businesses too.

From personal experience. I am willing to assign a higher value to products made by local and/or small businesses, even if it doesn’t otherwise make any practical sense. But it is a very conscientious moral judgement on my end, so I don’t expect most people to behave this way… and I have a limit too, +100% is probably too much.

Although I guess the benefit of being a “small” business is that you also don’t need as many customers… There are also some types of small businesses that are competitive: I suppose most ethnic food stores or your local market stall won’t struggle with competing on price.

how is it that there are any little shops left at all?

Maybe this depends on the area? I don’t know if it is just me, but it seems to me that these days small businesses do better in larger cities… maybe larger cities have more “ethical shoppers”

I try to do most of my shopping at small businesses and I almost never buy anything from the Internet. I find it’s usually cheaper when you take into account shipping and whatever fees get tacked on, and I also get the thing I want that day. I know I’m not getting scammed because I can see the thing in my hands, I know what I’m getting. The chain I go to the most is my grocery store. For eating out I go to a small locally owned restaurant because it’s about the same price or cheaper than the fast food.

I’m lucky enough to live in a city that has all this so I don’t look down on people who can’t access this stuff and have to buy online, but I do push people to at least but directly from people instead of Amazon. I’ve also never bought a thing from Amazon, ever.

I guess I’m an outlier but with where I live and what I want or need, it’s pretty easy to not buy from the Internet or big box stores.

I only see advantages in the long term in supporting the local comerce, even if you can find cheaper stuff in any agressive big-box or on-line stores, they are big because they aim for one only thing: monopoly.

I’ll grab some beers from the minimarkt at most. Everything else comes from the supermarket. And I often pass those tiny stores that never seem to have any customers – e.g. a shop just for socks? – and I always wonder how they can exist. There must be some kind of tax breaks or tax evasion going on.

Exactly like you - restaurants and grocery I can do local small business. Also services, haircut and such, I don’t use chain places. And I try to pay very local people for anything we get done to the house, the pets, the yard.

But the “corner convenience store” that has the household stuff is Walgreens, there isn’t a local equivalent nearby and yes buying stuff 'on the ground ’ sometimes costs so very much more than ordering online.