People can't buy better stuff because they don't have jobs or jobs that pay well enough. Those jobs leaving are what helps them buy the cheaper stuff. Quite the roundabout, isn't it?
It’s more like a spigot that is draining into corporate coffers, and out of the communities. There’s not much money left and what does move around all doesn’t stay in or anywhere near town.
To be fair, even local mom and pop stores still purchased the majority of the supplies they sold from out of town. Few cities could produce all of the goods, or even the majority of the goods needed on their own. So yes, DG takes some of the profits, but there are local employees making money to then spend in the local economy.
There is lots of reasons to not buy better stuff.
I own mostly cheap furniture because good stuff is a very expensive commitment, for example.
Yup, this is a problem of money draining from rural america. There are many symptoms.