This is how that "standard progression" actually happened in my town: 1. There was no bakery a few blocks away. Maybe there was in 1850, but not in my lifetime

This is how that "standard progression" actually happened in my town: 1. There was no bakery a few blocks away. Maybe there was in 1850, but not in my lifetime. 2. There were two grocery stores, both of which sucked. one sucked way worse than the other, though. 3. The crap grocery store went out of business. 4. Walmart opened up. 5. A coffee shop, bakery, fro-yo place, hockey arena, sports bar, hair salon, tire store, Dollar Tree, AT&T store, and J.P. Edwards mortgage lending place opened up in a cluster around the new Walmart. You won't ever see the small bookshop version of this story because for the most part, nobody reads books. The one thing you might see more of is Bookman's style used book shops next to the Walmart. In low reading zones they will sell other used stuff.