Its up to the local community to avoid the trappings of Amazon and Walmart in particular and look towards spending money locally in downtowns at farmers markets and using local services whenever possible - mega corps keep getting bigger because we feed them. Consider who or what you are feeding next time you make a purchase!
1000 this! I've sadly watch one strip get developed by big box stores and the downtown erode in my lifetime and its sad to see so many people spend so much of our money at stores that have no local ownership. Yet in the same time frame I've watched another nearby city with a rundown downtown focus on it, and that town is now much nicer than the other. It shows how important focusing on your downtown is and making sure it services the needs of your community in a way that competes, or at least co-exists with the big box stores.
I also can't stand grocery shopping in general. The overwhelming number of options confuse more than they help. I'd much prefer smaller grocers who curate their inventory.
Its difficult for suburban downtown's to stay in business with the suburban population creating mega corporations who value turnover over quality. A small business cant afford the rent in strip mall's owned by giant REIT's and stocked with "franchise" players.
Most suburban cities feel they can simply build condos (and "replace" existing retail) to drive demand.
The Hippies and all the generations before them created this problem. I'm not a millennial but I think its the generation that's going to revert to quality over quantity -we've seen that with how they spend their money. The mega grocery store model fall's apart the minute you start mentioning "free trade" and "organic". Culture hasn't caught up with technology or business yet -as we've seen decentralization is a powerful thing. We've also seen that trust is hard to maintain when a company gets too big. I think we are going to see a small business revival in the coming years!