Most US cities have or at least used to have the same scenario of a few furniture stores in the same district where you can browse several selections. I rememb

Most US cities have or at least used to have the same scenario of a few furniture stores in the same district where you can browse several selections. I remember Schenectady having several stores in one spot each dedicated to lighting (and exhaust fans and doorbells, because of NuTone's business). The big box thing is, in my opinion, relatively recent, and I felt like it started with Home Depot. That was the cause of the closing of the independent hardware stores in Schenectady, such as the venerable Wallace Armer. In other places they attribute it to Walmart's but that came late to the Northeast. Now, small stores tend to carry boutique items and everything costs a lot more than the big box stores. On the one hand we have a very efficient furniture-making-selling system in the big boxes, that produces stuff that can be set up once but usually does not survive a move well. On the other we have expensive, one-of-a-kind type crafts that are able to become heirlooms but are out of the price range for most people who just want a coffee table or a couch.