Are there local credit bureaus?

Factual Questions
1

I always see references to the Big 3.
My bank just offered me a service where they would tell you every time anone asked for a credit report from the Big 3.

Are there still any local bureaus left?
Are they different somehow? Who would check a person’s local credit these days, when there are no longer local banks, or gas station chains, or department store chains?

2

Sort of.

There are local merchants who sell credit reports, etc. to businesses in the area. They don’t actually keep everyone’s credit history on file, they just resell the data from the big 3. They do sometimes add value by formatting the data in ways that make it easier to use for a particular client. Some of them even consolidate the info from the big 3 into a single report.