Analyzing the Closure of High Street Shops: A Societal Perspective

This essay explores the increasing trend of high street shop closures due to the preference for large shopping centers, a situation exacerbated by the pandemic. It analyzes whether this shift is a positive or negative development for society, considering the economic impacts on small businesses, employment, and the rise of monopoly economies. The essay also discusses the benefits of shopping malls, such as convenience and variety, and suggests potential solutions like collaboration among small shop owners to create competitive shopping complexes. The conclusion emphasizes the need to address the economic issues arising from these closures to foster a balanced and healthy economy. Desklib provides access to similar academic resources for students.

Essay

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................4
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................6
Books and Journals......................................................................................................................6

INTRODUCTION
In past times, customers were very comfortable in shopping from small and specialised
shops but this has now changed. Majority of the population is preferring visiting malls where
they can access almost everything just under one roof (Parker and et.al., 2017). This is leading to
the closing of the small and local shops. The positive effects of high street is the development
while the negative effect includes major loss for the small shops.
MAIN BODY
The pace of the world is changing especially in the field of shopping. These changes in
the way of people shop are moving on with a constant rate and it can be seen that due to this
reasons a considerable amount of shops which are small and locally working are shut down. On
the other hand, large shopping malls and centres are growing on a continuous rate (Hubbard,
2017). The main reason behind this is usually the choice of the population and their preferences
about having cost benefits and exploring large variety of products. With the time, more and more
customers are moving towards the large shopping complexes rather than purchasing from the
small and local shops and due to this, the small shop owners have no choice other than force
closing their business. This is a negative problem results in people working in small shops are
losing their jobs but creates many benefits for the side of customers as they can buy products at
cheaper prices range and getting the best deal. It does not matter how much it is good for the
customers, it will always be a negative impact on independent high street shops as well as
national economy. Local shops suffers a huge loss in the process of competing against big
shopping malls. This is because large shopping malls will continue to provide discounts as they
do not have to face any type of competition. These discounts keeps the shoppers away from
small shops and more traffic in the mall and shopping complex. Another issue rising from this
problem is that the level of unemployment is increasing as more and more people are losing their
job (Millington and Ntounis, 2017). When the small shops close, people employed will lose their
source of income and come under a very critical situation. There are many families whose sole
source of living is dependent on the running of small shop and shutting it down will make them
struggle to survive. The growth of large malls will contribute in the growth of monopoly
economy which is unhealthy for the country. This describes that the destruction of the small
business will lead to not an efficient growth in the economy. As a consequence, the closing of

small shops situation has become a burden on the nation which is resolved by the government
providing some unemployment benefits. In addition to this, lack of funds to support the family
can lead to influence the education of their children in a negative way and also raise conditions
such as violence and increase in crime rate as people will agree to do anything just to earn some
money.
On the other hand, malls and shopping complexes products all kinds of products and
services in under one roof as it has the area and idea of having all kinds of shops in a single
building. This makes the buyers save their time specially in this fast moving era where almost
everyone is working under deadlines. Getting all things in one place will save their time to run
another errand in the day. Moreover, people can ask for trial of products which they wish to buy.
This makes the buyer feel more confident in buying the product. Buyer even have the chance to
compare the price and quality of the competitor's products and services. Mall provides more safe,
comfortable and wider space which gives pleasure in shopping. In addition to this, malls will
have a wide range of options available for payments and people are attracted towards the malls
as this facility is available everywhere (Wallace and et.al., 2018). This have the side effects on
the small and local shops. These shopping complexes have very strong planning and have a good
amount of support behind them and hire large number of people to work there with competitive
salaries. Malls and shopping complex have become the latest trend in the current and future
development. These developments bring in the many opportunities even for the small shops to
shift their business in these buildings and not lose their customers. Small shop owners have the
chance to collaborate and share the available resources in building more shopping complexes.
This will help in attracting customers and a shift to an organised market while offering same
experience as the malls. These large buildings can put harm in many ways but these points for
drawbacks are relatively small when compared with the positive influence on the development
process. It helps in creating new jobs while offering a place to have a trade off between the price
and benefits with the products.
CONCLUSION
It can be concluded that people chose organised shopping centre more over going to
different shops. This will helps in saving the resources and allowing more liberty while
purchasing. However, this is leading to the close down of the local shops as the effects of this

trend. They have a chance to collaborate and solve this economic issue. High street shops are the
local shops which are not same as the shops situated out of the town.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Hubbard, P., 2017. The battle for the high street: Retail gentrification, class and disgust.
Springer.
Millington, S. and Ntounis, N., 2017. Repositioning the high street: evidence and reflection from
the UK. Journal of Place Management and Development.
Parker and et.al., 2017. Improving the vitality and viability of the UK High Street by 2020:
Identifying priorities and a framework for action. Journal of Place Management and
Development.
Wallace and et.al., 2018, April. The SelfReflector: Design, IoT and the high street. In
Proceedings of the 2018 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (pp.
1-12).