I Don’t Understand Bton Business

So, I’m just thinking out loud here as a non-business type. And would love any insight.

I love Mexican and Latin food. And we are lucky to have at least what? Eight to ten local restaurants in that genre. We also have four IU sportswear stores on Kirkwood alone, not counting the ones elsewhere in town. We have lots of pizza places.

And I’m just using this as an example, but how was Darn Good Soup, a beloved, unique restaurant that made something relatively easy prep/serving-wise unable to hang in their previous iteration? Or is this about the pre vs post COVID era?

And I’m not trying to pit any businesses as less or more valuable. I’m just genuinely curious how it plays out. It often seems (and I could be mistaken) that the more unique places don’t stay around. I sometimes look around and it seems wild to me that so many redundant businesses can all sustain when one unique business cannot.

Is this homogeneity of Hoosier tastes or something else?