Rural Members: Is Your Local Market Shrinking?

I first arrived in rural Thailand in early 2016. The first 7-Eleven in the area had just been built and was just awaiting shelving, stock, and staff.
Out the front seven days a week - on what would become the (still unsealed) car park for the Seven, was a bustling morning market, upward of three dozen stalls selling all manner of fresh produce, meats, and hot and cold meals and snacks fried/grilled/prepared in situ. Opening before dawn, and closing around 10am, it was the centre for farmers, labourers, office workers, and school children on the way to start their day.
On Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays the site hosted a larger afternoon market, with upward of 50 stallholders building small alleyways between their stalls to cater for two lanes of traffic with an extended line of vegetable and meat products for sale, including clothes, home goods, toys, and a different range of meals, including ice creams and desserts. Tuesday and Sunday afternoon markets were at a huge site behind the largest temple in the village, covering about half an acre or more. Thursdays'markets were a lot smaller and held in a privately-owned undercover area in the centre of the village.
It was all hustle and bustle twice a day - slower on Thursday - from, say 5AM to 8-10AM, then again from 2PM to 6PM (slightly longer when the Seven put lights out the front in 2021)
The pandemic didn't really see much in a downturn from normal traffic until mid-2021, with the exception of the Thursday market which shifted from inside the village to the Seven on the highway. The site behind the temple was even expanded.
However, since 2023 or so there has been a steady decline of stalls, with this morning only 11 stallholders preferring food.

Sure, school is on its holiday between years, but even the lottery ticket sellers are down from five or six to two with only one being there this morning and the bottom half of his case was still half full.
The last few "Seven" afternoon markets have had around 18 sellers while the large site behind the temple on Tuesdays is like a wasteland while Sundays still sees plenty of traffic, specially from cars with out-of-province plates going south.
There just doesn't seem to be any money for the locals. Anywhere. The amount of discretionary disposable income is close to nil.

I'm in Phetchabun Province, a farming province. Apart from Khao Kho district, it's not exactly a place known for its bristling tourism trade, building and construction, or anything else. Even two of Phetchabun's three Nissan dealerships have closed; it's Makro (85km north of me) is lot quieter with shorter queues with fewer cashiers open, and banks and cellular phone providers are shutting branches.

Have you found similar issues in your rural area?

Edited May 2May 2 by The Oracle