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

Nowadays we are seeing a significant number of

shops

present in the neighbourhood shutting down since most buyers are going to either shopping centres or

malls

for buying various items.

According to

my opinion,

this

is harmful to society and I intend to highlight the same in

this

essay. These

malls

are set up by multinational corporations,

whereas

the local

shops

are set up by people who are often staying in the neighbourhood and struggling to bring food to their plates. These shopkeepers take hefty loans from banks for starting their own businesses, failure in payment of which penalises them.

This

shift in shopping trends is deteriorating the economy. The previous year my Uncle started his own business of making leather bags and selling them in local markets. He was unable to sell in any mall as neither the product's longevity was yet proven, nor he had a big name in

this

sector. Luckily five local

shops

agreed to be the retail sellers, but they ran out of business within a few months because of minimum footfall and these bags went back to a storage facility.

Additionally

, shopping centres are exploiting their staff with long working hours because of the unavailability of jobs, which can be checked when more vacancies are present. Had the leather business flourished in a better manner, the owner would have recruited a few more employees.

Moreover

, shopping

malls

tend to procure goods from wholesalers who are agreeing to sell at a cheaper rate, which may not be a local producer. The closure of local

shops

is affecting local production units too.

To conclude

, I believe Governments must take steps to ensure local stores flourish alongside other large shopping

malls

. Subsidies for tax and utility bills need to be given for minimising their expenditure.