I hear your pain and I am saddened by the situation too but there are a variety of reasons why people don't use their local shops. And all of them are valid. For a long time we had only one local shop then all of a sudden we had four. Now we are down to two again. Oddly enough the two shops that are left each have one characteristic that I have difficulty dealing with but I still support them. One can only be accessed by steps and one has a second floor with steep, winding steps where they hold their classes and keep their sale fabric. Definitely a turn off for ladies with mobility issues and in the case of the stairs a liability issue. I have dropped a lot of money at these shops and I have also spent a lot of money on the internet.
You are not going to get people on very tight budgets to buy $10/yd fabrics at their local shop no matter how well you explain the greige goods difference or the helpfulness of shops, etc. They just don't have the money and they have to eat.
You are not going to get people who have had a bad experience at a shop to see the importance of supporting same shop. And what one person sees as important in a shop is not the same to another. I don't give a horses patoot if the employees don't greet me as soon as I walk through the door, I would rather do my own thing. But I do want their help if I ask or when it's time to cut or pay up. Even the thread we had recently on play areas in quilt shops gave me a chuckle. Pretty much everyone thought a play area was a great thing...except me and I had the restraint to stay quiet...til now. Oops.