In my experience it was the reverse; the chains brought in indifferent employees, while the mom & pops were local owners with local workers.
I ran into an awful lot of “local owners with local workers” that were charging extortionate prices with terrible customer service because they were “the only local store selling {product type}, so where ya gonna go?”
This backfired on them when chains came to town, and it’s backfired on them even more now that internet commerce is a thing.
A case in point: For a while in the 90s, I had some really bad years and was compelled to live in a small town outside Dallas for economic reasons. The local feed store was a Mom and Pop operation, was the only such operation for a good 20-30 miles, and they knew it. One day they decided they wanted more money and quadrupled the price of all pet food. When customers complained, they were told that the customer obviously had money for a lazy freeloading non-working animals so they could easily pay the increase and if they didn’t like it, why, they could go to Dallas and get their food instead. Including no few little old ladies who lived downtown and *couldn’t* drive to Dallas to get food for their little furry friends. I don’t really think I need to tell you what kind of situation that put these fixed income seniors in; the owners of the store and the staffers simply didn’t care.
There was no shortage of opportunistic jackass little M&P stores like this in the rural area either.
Watching them go out of business, screaming all the way, when the chains showed up a few years later was hilarious.
From speaking with others, this isn’t/wasn’t uncommon in rural areas all over the country.