There's a lot of truth in what you say Fishman!
This statement that you made:
"Flip side to it is that the old "Mom & Pop" stores are a thing of the past."
is the direct result of your previous statement:
"Boils down to me not having enough time or money to ride all over, finding/hunting bargains when its all under one roof. Its a matter of convenience."
I saw the first sign of this in the early sixties when I was Copy Chief at Jefferson Stores in Miami. This chain of stores was very similar to Walmart.
One of the memos I received from the Chairman of the Board informed me that I was to slant all copy from the advertising dept. to a theme "buy it now and save", "one stop shopping", "shop here and save time" etc. The whole point was to woo people away from shopping store to store for their needs.
In a couple of years you could see the effect this type of advertising was having. Chain stores all over the country were doing the same thing. Then, one by one you could see the Mom & Pop stores close their doors and out of business. Many had been in business for an incredible number of years compared to the lifetime of stores today.
I had been going to the same pharmacy for over 10 years. One day when I walked in the owner/pharmacist took me aside and told me that they were closing their doors. Why? Because they simply could not compete in price with Pharmacies run by one-stop-shop places like the Jefferson Stores where I was working. His drug store had been handed down father to son.
Just like "big" in any business ... BIG almost always wins out!