Progress marches in a line, methinks - only the line keeps repeating itself.
For me it is a question of value, and I am a sucker for service. I gladly pay a premium for a hardware store where I can ask for "the funny looking brass thingamajig" on the bottom of my boiler - to watch the clerk go to the back and magically produce exactly the right part to fix my heat. Unfortunately those stores are going the way of the dodo bird.
Perhaps it is on-line data; I can google my boiler, find a relevant YouTube video, and order the part faster than I can back my car out of the driveway. Perhaps it is that it simply does not pay to run a store - due to immense competition from the big boxes, as well as the plethora of new things out there. Home Depot literally sells more than 1000 models of refrigerators*, not to mention dishwashers and water heaters. It is impossible for a small hardware store to keep inventory, much less knowledge, to service this level of complexity.
Contrast that, for example, to car parts stores, where the local NAPA, etc., are doing quite well. There are a lot fewer choices of cars than home appliances.
Having said this, I am a sucker for service. For example, I gladly support my local shoe store. They are consistently 10% more expensive than Zappo's. But they give great service and it is fun to shop there - kids get stickers, I get some good-natured grief for my age, etc.
* This comes from an article in Harvard Business Review, "Strategies to Reduce Product Proliferation", which I read a while ago - but unfortunately do not have anymore. Great read, for those interested; it compares, for example Costco strategy to Home Depot.