One difference- there are owners. A town with twenty mom’n’pops may have forty minimum wage workers, but they’ve also got twenty owners buying nice houses, donating to the volunteer firehouse and otherwise enriching the community- they know their livlihood relies on the community. Additionally, each of those employees stands a good chance of being a business owner on day. The whole “work hard, learn all you can, and one day you’ll own a business of your own” thing really works in this model.
In the Wallmart model, you’ve got fifty-five people working for minimum wage and maybe five in managment positions. WalMart makes it a policy that manager must be willing to change stores frequently. These managers are no longer invested in the community and unlikely to get involved in civic things. Also, nobody expects to some day own WalMart. You’ve killed the American dream in one town.