I come from (and still leave near) a similar-sized town, and it went through the same process. And my dad remembers when it had even more businesses than I can remember, with movie theaters and the like.
It's actually gotten a little better in the last decade, I think because people got some hope again that jobs might come back, and because remote work meant fewer people were driving to the bigger town down the road every day, so there became more of a market in the small town for things like a grocery store or Dollar General-type store again. There are also more home-based businesses, started by people who work full- or part-time remotely and put their spare time into starting a local business.
But in the 90s/2000s, it was nothing more than a bedroom community for the town 20 miles away, which was sad. It's still nothing like it once was, but at least there are some signs of life now.
It's actually gotten a little better in the last decade, I think because people got some hope again that jobs might come back, and because remote work meant fewer people were driving to the bigger town down the road every day, so there became more of a market in the small town for things like a grocery store or Dollar General-type store again. There are also more home-based businesses, started by people who work full- or part-time remotely and put their spare time into starting a local business.
But in the 90s/2000s, it was nothing more than a bedroom community for the town 20 miles away, which was sad. It's still nothing like it once was, but at least there are some signs of life now.