Mom & Pop shops aren't present at most highway exits like the big chains, and would need to become unbelievably, impossibly successful locally to generate enough capital to expand widely. They can't effectively compete with major chains. It's not a meaningful expression of the other poster's point.

Are you a trucker? Maybe 0.3% of my meals come from highway exits. Most of my meals are from near my home.

> They can't effectively compete with major chains

I don't think they were suggesting a couple Mom & Pop shops become national chains. I think they were suggesting that collectively Mom & Pop shops could compete against the chains. If everyone replaced 50% of their chain fast food meals with mom & pop shops then each mom & pop shop might only see a small bump in orders but that would be devastating to the chains.