My experience (in Portugal) is that they provide a sort of safety net and offer small but precious favors, thanks to being owned by a Person (and not a faceless corporation) who you can get to know and establish a trust relationship.

Our corner stores provide items on credit for local residents when money stretches thin before the paycheck arrives, they deliver for free to the poor old lady who can't leave her home, or they hold your home keys if you needed to give them to someone when you were away. In exchange, we buy some stuff from them, even if it's a bit more expensive.

Plus, some have relationships with local farmers and other small scale producers, and so can get some genuinely better products than supermarkets. I always bought national fruits and bread from them.

Thanks for the explanation, and I think that matches my mental model when people talk about those. But I've not even experienced that in small towns or villages where relatives or friends live.

I'm guessing it's a largely New York City/California (or perhaps even just LA) phenomena. I'm also guessing people from midsized cities in the central parts of the US are as confused as you are.

If my nearest corner store closed down tomorrow it would probably take me 6 month to notice.

In America (especially the East coast), the mom & pop bodegas serve as impromptu social gathering places for the locals, as the store and its owners are very much a part of the community. Taking that away feels a lot like ripping apart a family.

Honestly, it just sounds like these 'coastal elites' seems to care a lot more about their personal image and making themselves feel good rather than actually caring about bodegas and their families, or whatever. Reminds me in a bit like poverty porn.

Lets be honest here - they're just vending machines. Sure, Bodega is a very bad choice of name, but it was the FastCompany article that said they want to kill mom and pop stores and rob their familities, not the founders.

Of course, I'm not from America (australia) so I'm definitely out of touch with the cultural part of the situation, but that's just what it looks like from here

Well, I think nobody will force anyone to use those vending machines instead of going to their corner store.

If people do it, maybe it's because they don't feel this family thing ? So does it matter after all ?

Not supporting the vending machines here, just interrogating you :-)

Sounds like general stores in small towns closing down because a Walmart has opened next door.

To be fair, a lot of people are seriously angry at Walmart about that as well.

Germany is different. Corner shops elsewhere can be open longer hours.

It depends on the "Bundesland"/state. Yes, there are exceptions but these are usually only disguises call shops who have some alcohol, cigarettes, newspapers, and maybe toast and some basic food.