Congratulations for sticking to your decision to support local buinesses. Funny enough, when Wal*Mart came into my home town, it was a plus, simply because we had no "local businesses" anyway - to go to a hardware store, grocery store, or anything else, you had to leave town. And to go to a decent hardware store, it was two town away. The WalMart was built on a site that had been a drive-in that had gone out of business years before, and was just an empty, weedy space.

Where we now live, there's a great local hardware store that I go to if I need keys made, anything special, hard to find, or "out of season" - they brought me down to the basement of the store when I needed clippers in the "off" season. Small businesses often cannot compete on price, but they can compete on quality, and on service. I believe the good local businesses can adapt and thrive. I hope some will in your town.