I don't remember any independent stores, My mother did buy at what we call a dime store and at Woolworths. She used to crochet and those were the stores she went to. I remember going to the feed store and choosing two bags of the same fabric so she could make a dress for us. When I was a teen mid 60s I remember a man selling fabric from the trunk of his car. I remember to this day the fabrics that my dad bought for me to make Easter dress for my sisters and mother. Thinking back we were poor but I didn't know it then...until I got to high school and saw the other kids clothes. We had school clothes, shoes and home clothes, shoes.