Local shopping

By definition, whenever we look to buy something that we can retrieve in a short walk or drive, we are shopping locally. Does that idea of local bring anything with it. I am not at all sure we are focusing enough on the process of how we do this.
Consider my wanting to buy a heating pad or wrap that I could reheat in the microwave. I had one that I am pretty sure I bought at CVS, but when I went to the store, no sign of it. I asked a manager there and it did not ring a bell with her. So looked on the CVS site when I got home and no luck there either. A number of Google searches did not reveal the exact item that I wanted but gave me some leads both to shop locally and online.
There is something missing in that process - knowledgeable human intervention. We become far too reliant on Aunt Google to answer every query when a knowledgeable pharmacy store person ought to be able to send me precisely in the right direction - perhaps not to replace the one that I have, but maybe that human advisor could recommend a better option. The CVS manager was not in a position to do this, it seemed.
We have lost so much in the local shopping experience. I had hoped that the new name of CVS - CVSHealth - might yield more than marquee changes, but so far, none.