In recent years, many small local shops have closed because customers travel to large shopping centres or malls to do their shopping. Is this a positive or a negative development?

In the last few years, due to a change in consumers shopping pattern from local shops to shopping centres and malls, has resulted in a closure of the small shops. In my opinion, this is a positive development as large malls have not only lead to an increase in employment but have also become one stop solution centre. Firstly, an increase in shopping from malls has generated more employment opportunities. For instance, as per an article by The New York Times, Walmart, one of the world's largest retail stores, hires fifteen per cent of America's population. As large supermarkets and malls have more departments, such as marketing, finance, operations and sales, which keeps generating the requirement for jobs, hence, these shopping centres end up hiring more people as compared to local shops. Secondly, malls work as a one stop solution for consumers. In other words, malls have wide options for people including grocery,clothes, electronic equipment and books. Therefore, most of the customers end up spending more than the budget amount. India is a prime example, where the development of shopping centres and malls have, lead to increasing consumers spend by one-fourth, consequently, making these shopping malls one of the significant contributors to government revenue. In conclusion, this change in consumer behaviour benefits society as a whole. While malls have increased employment opportunities, they have also provided people with products under the same roof. Moreover, with the increased consumer expenditure the contribution of shopping centres to governments revenue has shot up.