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

In the present world, expanding shopping

centres

and malls reduced the number of local

businesses

and shops. Overall, I consider

this

change a positive alteration whose benefits outweigh its drawbacks,

although

increasing the unemployment rate and the number of active

businesses

is its undeniable adverse effects.

Firstly

, by travelling to these shopping

centres

people can save their time and money, while they are receiving more professional customer service. In a freezing winter or before a crucial interview,

for instance

, people strongly prefer to travel to one united centre to purchase all indeed items and products, where they can access a large parking area and different brands. Even during weekends, visiting these huge malls is a kind of leisure time activity for most of the city dwellers, especially the ones that embedded restaurants and entertainment facilities.

Moreover

, due to mass sales, these hypermarkets are capable to provide considerable discounts, which is not a feasible option for local

businesses

. In fact, they can supply products from the producer, which makes their prices significantly lower. They

also

can reduce waste by offering coupons and special offers or distributing flyers. According to statistics, in 2020, central shops declined amount of the food waste by 50% in Canada, compared to 1990 when small markets were in majority. The environmental effects of

such

big conserving resources are significantly important in long run. Another positive impact of

this

change was remarkably obvious during the COVID-19 pandemic that modern shopping

centres

played a survival role in the management of the supply chain. As a matter of fact, they have the necessary knowledge and experience to provide wide access to their customers. In conclusion,

although

local

businesses

were job creators in the past, they are not a successful business pattern for our modern life and they are barely capable of competition with modern malls and shopping

centres

.