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

Nowadays, a lot of small businesses have broken down because people have preferred to go to huge shopping malls than buy things from local shops. I think that

this

situation is a negative aspect of city development because local companies are the best way to provide more

jobs

and make the distribution of income fairer. On the one hand, large shopping centres promote several

jobs

during their construction,

however

, after starting to operate,

jobs

tend to change from small businesses to big enterprises. Big companies usually have sales and storage processes more efficiently and need fewer people to work.

Besides

, when shops are concentrated in the same place, services

such

as food, cleaning, parking, and security can be shared, reducing even more

jobs

.

Moreover

, shopping centres and malls usually pay higher prices than local stores.

For example

, a T-shirt sold in a shopping mall can be double the price of a neighbourhood shop.

Besides

, in local stores, most of the parking lots are free of charge,

while

in shopping centres the customers have to pay for a third-party parking lot.

To sum up

, there are some good points in

this

trend, but I think that the drawbacks outweigh the benefits, especially in the creation of

jobs

and income distribution.

Overall

, it is good for the economy and for the owners and stakeholders of big companies, but it is worse for neighbourhood trades and the finances of families.