First, you should be careful about thinking you know people in general, and even if you could know such an abstract and totalizing thing, you don't need all the customers, just enough customers, or even plenty of customers.
Also, the very fact of charity shows that people must care about something other than price. Paying higher prices to interact with your neighbors is just a much smaller step on the same road of doing things you think are beneficial but that won't maintain your bank account at the highest possible value at that exact instant. Farmer's markets are another example of the same.
You're either looking at the wrong people or making the wrong changes, if you don't think anyone actually cares about anything other than price.
It's people with deeper wallets who do what you're describing, including shopping at farmer's markets. This brings us to the real way a smaller business survives against a giant competitor: they raise their prices and target a niche market by offering more obscure/luxury products or services.
That produce at the farmer's market? It's not the same produce that you'll find at Kroger. If it were, the farmer's market wouldn't last long.
Also, the very fact of charity shows that people must care about something other than price. Paying higher prices to interact with your neighbors is just a much smaller step on the same road of doing things you think are beneficial but that won't maintain your bank account at the highest possible value at that exact instant. Farmer's markets are another example of the same.
You're either looking at the wrong people or making the wrong changes, if you don't think anyone actually cares about anything other than price.