Many businesses are for gathering or socializing. If this were the Middle Ages, we’d hang out at the inn after the work day was done, or maybe talk and drink down by the town well.

In many rural communities especially in the Midwest this is the role that the town bar(s) fill. You need something like 50 people living in a given community for one bar to be sustainable, and because of that you get towns with ~250 people that have 3-4 bars but only 2 churches. These small town bars generally know their role and price their food and morning coffee accordingly-making it as affordable as possible so the few customers they have can afford to come back more than once a week