Our local pub is an Irish place - opened by Irishmen, sold to another Irishman - but it occupies a space formerly owned by an Italian restaurant, so the decor isn’t what you’d expect from a “proper” Irish pub, and that makes it nice. The atmosphere comes from its regulars – and the wrought-iron-work, and the pool table upstairs, and the hand-made wishing well sitting in the center of the joint. Fitting, considering the place is called “the Wishing Well.”
The gas station where I get my car serviced.
They are all very nice and friendly and they have lunch cook-outs every day in the summer. If I bring my car in ( or go to pick it up ) at lunchtime they invite me to hang out and have lunch.
It’s doubly cool because it’s in NYC and I like to tell people about hanging out and eating burgers with the guys at the Sunoco, it sounds so rural.
Not any more. When I worked at the old Main Library in Columbia, there was a little sandwich shop right across the street that was run by one of my brother’s oldest friends. That alone wouldn’t have done it, but he had the best pimento cheese (and hence, the best pimento cheese burgers) that side of the Congaree River.
Damn. Now I’m hungry.
We have several local restaurants that I’d patronize any day of the week instead of going to Applebees or its equivalent.
We have an independent book store, and when there’s a book I want to buy, I go to Amazon and look up the ISBN number then have the local store order it for me. (And the local indie place has two bookstore cats! You can’t beat that!)
We have a couple of chain craft stores, but we also have a WONDERFUL locally-owned bead store. I go there regularly just to check out what’s new and rarely leave empty-handed.
We have a second-run movie theater downtown. I almost always wait for movies to show up there rather than going to see them at the megaplex. The local place also runs the quirky, off-beat stuff that will never be shown at the megaplex.
We did have an independent grocery store (scarcer than hens’ teeth, those are) about half a block up the street from us. Sheesh! I was there two or three times a day some days! My son and husband stopped there every day on the way home from school. I remember being sick as a dog one time with bronchitis and dragging my ass up there to buy a bag of cough drops, only to discover I had no cash and had left my debit card at home. One of the cashiers took money out of her own purse and said, “Just pay me back sometime.” I cried when they closed. 
Why, just today I went to the diner that I go to strictly because of one waiter, a gregarious Greek guy who acts like I’m a long-lost friend every time I come in. It’s because of his attitude that I happily tip 40% on a cheap breakfast.
I recently figured out that he actually knocks a few bucks off the menu prices when I’m there. So, I’m not really spending any more money, just improving his check/tip ratio. Everybody wins!
Compared to that place, I feel like I’m getting the hardcore stinkeye everywhere else.
I have waitresses who do things like that. Usually they’ll comp [non alcoholic] drinks or a dessert or won’t charge for substitution or other little things they’re supposed to add on, and I add most of it onto their tip. It’s a nice little “keep the customers happy without really costing the restaurant anything” rebate system. 
Heh. Yeah, shop cats are really a great way to add atmosphere to a place. My favorite indie book store (now closed, alas) had two resident vermin control experts who doubled as shopping assistants. The male, in particular, would snuggle in your arms as you browsed the store. One of the thrift shops also had a shop cat, who definitely was in charge of the place.
The owner of one of the restaurants I go to will frequently give me something extra…a roll of Lifesavers, or one of her homemade pralines, just little stuff, but she likes me and loves to see me come in.
Yes, this is a common way for me to make a choice as where to go. There is a little dive bar in our town where, whenever I go they remember my name and drink and make a fuss over me. We went there every Tuesday for well over a year just because of how they treated us.
I am currently recovering from surgery, wait staff from two of the restaurants that I go to got me a card. They’ll keep getting my business. They would anyway, because they always treat me well.
As far as paying more, I don’t really look too closely at the prices. If I can afford to eat out, I do. I do try to tip well at the places that treat me well.
If it’s the owners doing it (or approving it), then it’s great. If it’s the waitress, then she’s basically stealing food from the restaurant and giving it to you, and you’re winking and paying her for it under the table. That’s definitely not good for the restaurant!
I’m pretty sure anyone who ever read The Hardy Boys stuff or Archie comics as a kid has always had a hankering for a green river or chocolate soda.
Tell your sister to open a store here!
A bartender used to give me free drinks all the time. I tipped her well, but was not comfortable with the freebies, as it was my friend’s bar. If I alerted him, he would have fired the bartender. So, I would accept the drinks, but would buy the owner drinks when he was there, thus putting $$ into the business.
Much of this discussion is why I disagree with most people when they oppose a WalMart or similar place coming to town.
More often then not, when WalMart comes to town, businesses that close are the ones that are in competition for the WalMart customer. Yes, WalMart can sell widgets cheaper than Ye Olde Widgete Shoppe can - and Ye Olde Widgete Shoppe may go under because they can’t compete on price. On the other hand, they may not - Ye Olde Widgete Shoppe offers many of the intangibles that some are willing to pay for (even if it means paying slightly higher prices).
More often than not (in my experience), when Ye Olde Widgete Shoppe does close down, it is replaced by another boutique business filling a niche that WalMart can’t hope to compete against because they don’t sell the product (antiques, fine art or jewelry, things with specific local appeal) or offer the service. The WalMart creates an opportunity for an business to open up that may not have otherwise had the space or market to do so before.
A prime example of this is the city of Fredericksburg, Virginia, where I grew up. When the suburban mall opened in the early 1980s the downtown stores that remained (quite a few of the big retailers simply moved to the mall) were hit hard at first. Then they began to carve out niches for themselves and marketed themselves as the “anit-mall.” Now, you can’t get downtown for all the people and the business community is thriving, rents and profits are up, and both the mall and downtown are a success.
As to the OP, yes, I tend to patronize shops with atmosphere or uniqueness if I can. Sometimes, though, it is a matter of price or convenience and I’ll take the cheaper/easier route.
I have a salon I frequent. Nothing fancy, but they do a good job and I can drop in most days and get my brows waxed with no appointment. They always seem so happy to see me.
The stylist who cut my hair short said she’d shave it for free when it got to that point.
You don’t need a stylist to do that. Anyone who’s lived in a frat house should know how to buzz you. 