People adopt the "local is better" stance waaaay too easily. Not too long ago, just about every city had its own bakery, brewery, cobbler, tailor, furniture maker, and so on. There was a lot of redundancy and inefficiency, and we spent a much higher share of our incomes on basic consumer products like food and clothing.
Fast forward a few years, and technology and a vastly improved transportation infrastructure has enabled mass-production to capitalize on economies of scale, comparative advantage, better site locations, and so on. The result is more competition and vastly cheaper products.
Hate on it all you want, but it's the very thing that's enabled you to have a higher standard of living than your grandparents.