When I first moved here, there was no Lowes, no Home Depot; just City Mill and a few small Ace Hardware stores. I once went to a small local hardware store to buy a tool. Their tools were rusty (Hawaii climate, slow sales), and they were more expensive by 20-40% than the same tool in the newer chain stores. I felt like they had been ripping off the Hawaii consumer for decades (nearly a century, actually) because there was no competition, and no other local choice.
With size comes buying power and lower prices. Yes, the little guys will eventually go out of business, but supporting them by paying 10, 20, 30, or 40% more doesn't seem worth it to me. I'm used to US trade policy, whereby we take advantage of the world markets to improve our standard of living for less. There are costs to this approach, too. Pick your poison.