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.

I live in a city that offers nearly any type of service/shop local to me so nowadays I’ll likely use them here unless what I’m searching for is overly specific.

My mom recently took me to a store selling minerals and fossils, which while not my scene, is quite an interesting place to just walk through.

Realistically I should probably get some of my food from a farming coop but my volume is so low and the supermarket is right in front of my door, to make that the main exception.

Prices sometimes are higher but typically not egregiously so, and for some things i find it within myself to pay that higher price.

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.

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).

I try to shop more local small shops these days. But youre right, Amazon has killed off most of them.

I shop at small businesses if its an option. I prefer my money supporting the community than someone’s fourth yacht.

That being said there is a particular type of small business whose customers are largely old retired people. They’re usually open 8-5, have higher than normal prices, and are in no rush as they usually like to chat - Which their customer base likes.

There are other types of course but sometimes you got to do hunting because they likely don’t have big advertising bucks.

Its very very difficult for small businesses to compete with big box stores. They can’t out price Walmart or outship Amazon. So they usually try to find a niche to focus on… Or wither on the vine.

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

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.

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.

Mostly, I don’t shop. So, when I do, I can choose according to ideals. Most of my searches are at thrift first, and the second hand. I never consider credit. And, I always shop for discounts.

Beyond that I look for a local with a healthy business and prices that don’t seem absurd.

There are a few local businesses that make no sense. I don’t understand how they can keep their doors open with the prices they charge. I avoid those, and stick with locals who work hard.

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.

Neighbour,

The small neighbourhood bookstore, hardware store, or food store may not be as cheap as a big brand, but the staff usually know what they’re talking about (nice in a bookstore, important in a hardware store when you have no idea on how to fix a leak). Moreover, they’re here, and don’t need 3 days of delivery.

Finally, shops nearby are part of what makes a neighbourhood nice, some people know it, and will spend the extra cash to not complaint about their dead/empty neighbourghood

Restaurants (including franchises of chains) are indeed a major segment of small businesses. Looking more broadly, any industry which: 1) offers a service/product/utility, and 2) has proven to not have a tendency to inflate beyond its fundamental target audience, those are likely to be small businesses. Those are the parameters which stave off any sort of corporate takeovers and consolidations, because they won’t invest in a small business if the prospect of infinite growth isn’t there. So the business stays small. And small is often perfectly fine.

That is to say, restaurants (humans can only eat so much food), bicycle stores (humans can only ride so much per day), and local produce shops (even in the Central Valley of California, there’s only so much produce to sell, and humans can’t eat infinite quantities) have these qualities.

But compare those to a restaurant supply warehouse or music equipment store, since those items can be shipped and need no customization by the end user. Consolidation and corporate meddling is possible and probable.

Then you have industries which are often local and small but are prone to financial hazards, such as real estate agents and used car lenders. Because they get paid as a percentage of the transaction size, if the price of houses or cars go up in an unchecked fashion, the profit margins also increase linearly, which makes them more tempting for corporate involvement.

There are corporate-owned national chains of real estate agents, self storage, department stores, and payday loan offices in the USA. But I’m not aware of a national chain for bicycle or bicycle accessories. Even regional chains for bicycles are few and far between. Some consolidation has happened there, but by most definitions, a bicycle shop is very much a small business.

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.

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.