Topologically the scheme $\rm{Spec}(\mathcal{O}_{X,x})$ is exactly the intersection of all neighbourhoods of $x$ and algebraically it contains every infinitesimal neighbourhood of $X$.  
Although technically it is not the germ of$X$ at $x$, it seems to me that it contains so much information about that germ that it could be considered a materialization of that germ .  
Also: technically it is not a subscheme of $X$ (since it is not locally closed) but  I can imagine a world where a broader notion of subscheme would allow the monomorphism  $j: S=\rm{Spec}(\mathcal{O}_{X,x})\hookrightarrow X$ to be called a subscheme, an almost open subscheme if you will.        
One argument for that broader point of view is that the induced canonical morphism $j^{-1}\mathcal O_X=\mathcal O_X\mid S \stackrel {\cong}{\to}  \mathcal O_S$ of sheaves over $S$ is an isomorphism, just as if $S\subset X$ were open.

In particular, given a morphism of rings $A\to B$ , the corresponding morphism of affine schemes $\phi:\rm{Spec} (B)\to \rm{Spec} (A)$ and a prime ideal $\mathfrak p\subset A$, the morphism $\rm{Spec} (B_{\mathfrak p}) \to \rm{Spec}(A_{\mathfrak p} )$  is a pleasant thickening of the genuine fiber $\phi^{-1}(\mathfrak p)=\rm{Spec}(B\otimes_A \kappa(\mathfrak p))$   of $\mathfrak p$.  
Considerations of such almost  germs $\rm{Spec}(A_{\mathfrak p} )$ of  $\rm{Spec}(A)$ at $\mathfrak p$ may be of  help when following reasonings in  commutative algebra.  

My first contact with one of these almost germs (or almost open subschemes) was in Mumford's Red Book, Chapter Two, §1, Example F, where he describes an example  as "... a startling  way to make a scheme out of the non closed points in the plane" and draws one of his celebrated pictures to illustrate the notion.