Of course, there’s a reason Amazon and other e-commerce sites are so difficult for small businesses to compete with: The convenience of online shopping is unmatched. Amazon’s rise is proof that as much as some consumers may want to support nearby businesses, in a sense there’s nothing more local than shopping from their living-room couch.

And, as the company pointed out when I contacted it about this article, Amazon does create some opportunities for independent businesses as well. More than 140,000 small and medium-sized businesses each sold more than $100,000 in goods on Amazon last year, according to the company. “We are empowering so many retailers—many of them small businesses and main street businesses—to reach customers, not just in the US, but around the world,” an Amazon spokesman, Erik Farleigh, wrote to me in an email.

Roundabout Books, a small business a mile from Greenfield’s Main Street, is an example of a shop that has been able to grow because of e-commerce. Raymond Neal, a former schoolteacher, opened the store six years ago, and most of his business is used books. Online retail—including selling through Amazon—has helped him keep the doors open. (He bemoans the fees he has to pay Amazon for the privilege, however.) He estimates that half of his revenue comes from online sales; the other half is a mix of in-store transactions and pop-up sales he does in busy locations like downtown Boston. “I go where the customers are,” he told me. But his Greenfield location produces only a small part of his revenues—if he makes $50 in a day in his store, it’s a good day, he said.

The shift of retail away from brick-and-mortar stores to online ones represents a fundamental change in the American economy, one that has big repercussions for communities like Greenfield. The average American spends nearly $15,000 a year on retail shopping, according to census data. If that money is going to companies based far away, the local economy may suffer, because less money is being kept in the community. Money spent at an independent business generates four times the direct local economic benefit than money spent at a chain store—in terms of employee pay, local charitable giving, and employee spending—according to an analysis done by Civic Economics, a research firm that studies independent businesses. Local business owners will often spend the money they earn from their business nearby, at restaurants, bars, and other retail stores. Also, as I’ve written before, the decline of local retail also has major implications for cities and towns’ ability to raise revenues through sales taxes.

There are other, less tangible, changes that occur when brick-and-mortar businesses disappear. As Main Streets become sparser, there will be fewer of the spontaneous, community-building interactions that take place when residents run into each other on the sidewalk or at a store. People who live in the same town might start to meet less often in person as they shop more from their couches and work more from their dining-room tables. Relatedly, small businesses are often the linchpins of a community—they sponsor softball teams and cookouts, charity auctions and parade floats. Bob Nelson, the owner of Nelson Ace Hardware in Barre, Vermont, another town struggling to revitalize its Main Street, said he gets “at least one request a day” to sponsor a local cause, whether it be the local Rotary Club or Lion’s Club or softball team. But who will be left to sponsor softball teams or floats in parades if there is no more small-town retail?