One of the most striking differences between living in the city and living in a small town is retail. There are just a lot fewer stores, but that doesn't necessarily mean that you can't get what you need locally. More important, it eliminates the "retail culture" that is wrecking a lot of America.
In the city, you are surrounded by stores and products and their byproduct: salespeople. These salespeople have only one goal, and that is to get you to buy more stuff. Even if you don't need it, even if you don't look good in it, even if you can't afford it. They utilize many different strategies to get you to buy. They try and shame you (you aren't really a player unless you own this, and I bet you can't afford it), bully you (so are you going to buy this or not, stupid?) or make you pity them (I have to sell ten more or I will get fired). In any event, they never help formulate a smart decision. How many times have you seen someone try on the world's ugliest dress for their body type, only to hear the clerk say "You look fabulous in that"?
So the first thing you will notice in a small town is the near absence of this unproductive retail sales message. Suddenly, you are free to make your own correct decisions without anyone else's tainted input. When you buy online or from a catalog or even make the rare drive to the city to see the new line of bags from Chanel, it will be in supreme and divine silence. This silence is one of the great luxuries of small town living, a silence you cannot buy at any price in the city.
The lack of constant sales messages from retailers will have a huge impact on your kids and budget. The absence of retail culture eliminates, not just reduces, kids' exposure and focus on buying stuff. It will allow you to cut your budget down on unnecessary retail "recreational buying" to near zero.
Need a reason to move to small town USA? Then spend a day at a mall, and a day in a small town. That will convince you!