Successful small town stores are those that can live within their overhead, and provide the extra service that personal attention allows for. If George at the shoe store knows you need the extra-wide and keeps a few around for you, that doesn't suck. Grocery stores and drugstores do well, too. Most people prefer not to go far for routine needs that aren't bulk.
As for transportation, a trip to Mankato from my home town (mostly freeway driving) might eat ten bucks worth of gas at today's prices. You don't have to save much on a big shopping trip to make that up.
Internet shopping didn't exist when I was a kid, but my parents still don't use it much, and run a phone modem connection for e-mail. Most of my older relatives aren't very net-savvy. I suspect Mom and Pop stores aren't helped much by internet shopping, either.
If people always wanted WalMarts in their towns, we wouldn't be having this discussion, would we?
"People" is not a very specific term. In most cases like this, I have found that a small and vocal minority is usually the driver for protests. As I said, Wal-Mart is not run by idiots, and I seriously doubt they would put a store in an area where they thought nobody would show up.
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