We are truly blessed being this close to a large urban area.. we have Chinese, Thai, Italian, Polish, Czech, Korean, and Mexican grocery stores near us. I never shop for food at a box store, their quality is no where near what I can get at these little stores, and the little stores are much cheaper as well.
For some reason, our Wal Mart just doesn't stock much at all in their grocery section which is all of two isles. However, the Target does have a very large grocery section taking up a third of their space. However, it is still more expensive than the small ethnic grocery stores.
But again, we have them here so it is an option for us. If I lived in an area with out them, I would take what I could get and buy where I could get it. I do like to support mom and pop stores, as long as they are not trying to be trendy and marking their prices up 2 to 3 times what others are, but if you don't have any in your area then I don't see how you are hurting them. Hard to hurt something that isn't there.
What I don't truly get is all the people out here that show Jewel, massively expensive chain store that even Target beats in price!