I live in a town of fewer than 8k people. Our local toy store is not only thriving, it’s central to the community.

People would rather shop there than go online. Why? Because they are a part of the community.

At every farmer’s market or community event they have a booth giving out free glitter tattoos to children, and they employ several teenagers part time to wrap gifts (of course this is free too), apply tattoos, and help out in the store.

This isn’t a unique concept. Going the extra mile and doing seemingly unreasonably nice things wins you customers and loyalty.

It would be great to have a "rural revival" where it's worthwhile to go back to the howling old owl in the woods, hunting the horny back toad.

Maybe the wave of AI layoffs can actually make that happen. We would need a visionary planner like maybe Christopher Alexander and then an administration to deeply care and support such a development.

I suspect if I were forced to make such a move, I'd be initially very upset, but long term, I'd probably welcome the change.