Shopping Centres' Impact: High Street Shops' Decline and Society

This essay examines the significant changes within the retail sector, specifically the decline of high street shops and the increasing preference for shopping centres, accelerated by the rise of online shopping during the pandemic. The essay explores various factors contributing to this shift, including locational obsolescence, changing consumer behavior, economic factors, and technological advancements. It also discusses the positive and negative impacts of this trend on society, such as increased consumer knowledge and convenience versus potential job losses and the decline of local businesses. The analysis includes external factors like political, technological, and environmental influences on retail shops. The essay concludes by summarizing the key arguments and emphasizing the multifaceted implications of this ongoing transformation in the retail landscape and its societal effects, offering insights into how these issues could be managed for a better outcome.

International Foundation
Programme (Business)
English for Academic
Purposes Level 6.3

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
CONCLUSION ...............................................................................................................................5
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................6

INTRODUCTION
Many high street people nowadays are closed because buyers prefer to large shopping centres on
the edge of town. During the pandemic all the people were buying from online apps. This issue
has positive impact as well as negative impact on the development of society.
MAIN BODY
Nowadays, there is rapid and complex change in the retail sector as high street shops have been
closed because shoppers like to purchase from large shopping centres. As competition is
increasing day by day so customers want good quality products at reasonable price so they are
buying from large shops. Retail shops are changing due to innovation in technology, political
changes or intervention, pressure from consumers, economic factors, changes in buying pattern
of consumers and choices of buyers are changing rapidly. The complex retail sector is a
hierarchy of town and size also varies. Locational obsolescence is also one of the reason behind
high street shops are closed (Waddington and et.al, 2018). In this fast moving world people want
new and innovative products and they want different variety of products, so they prefer large
shopping centres where there are many choices available.
Causes of locational obsolescence includes, changing demand side factors, change in planning,
human perceptions and decisions are changed, transportation facility. Economic obsolescence
focus in the lack of demand for goods and services from consumers and the intrinsically linked
lack of demand for property by retailers. Economic obsolescence can cause by recession and
political changes, these are the reason for economic obsolescence in retailing. Some reason
behind change in buying pattern of customers is that retail warehousing, increasing competition
like there are many supermarkets which provide good quality products and at low price as
compare to retail shops (Szymkowiak and et.al., 2021).
Environmental obsolescence is another reason for shops which are closed and shoppers prefer to
travel to large shopping centres. The impact of these issues on a location will, in part, depend on
actions taken to address them by different stakeholders. As taste and preference of consumers are
changing rapidly and it is difficult to manufacture new and innovative products. Customers are
attracted towards new products and products are available at low prices or offers are given
(WIDAGDO and ROZ, 2021). This is a strategy that is used by manufacturers to attract
customers and this helps in increasing sales. There are various external factors that can affect

retail shops like, political, technological, economic, legal and environmental. All these factors
affect the retail shops as in this fast moving world technology is also changing so it is not
possible to make new products with the help of new technology (Ratnasari and et.al., 2020).
During pandemic as all the shops were closed so people start purchasing in bulk and they
purchase through online mode. As almost all the supermarkets are providing home delivery
services to customers and people like this as they do not have to go anywhere and get products
they want. During covid-19 all the people were using online shopping from large centres and
they stop purchasing from high street shops. Purchasing products from supermarkets is easy and
simple way for customers. Due to covid -19 high streets shops have to suffer a lot because they
are nota having any source of earning and people are also buying from supermarkets. So, due to
some reasons many high Street shops have closed because shoppers prefer to travel to large
shopping centres on the edge of town.
Positive or negative development of society
As buyers start buying from large shopping centres and many high streets shops are closed. This
can be positive as well as negative for the development of society. As customers are buying from
large centres has a positive impact as it helps in increasing the knowledge of customers and they
learn how to buy products online or from supermarkets (Ramanathan and et.al., 2017). As many
people in the society did not go to large centres for shopping because they feel that may be
supermarkets are costly. So, if shoppers are preferring large shopping centres then it is helpful in
the development of society. People will learn new things and more buyers will start purchasing
from supermarkets as they will feel that it is easy to buy products from large centres and they
will get offers or discounts (Jones and Livingstone, 2018). This will help in the development of
society as buyers will learn new method of purchasing and online shopping is best way to
purchase products. The benefit of purchasing goods from supermarket is that buyers will get all
the things at one place, they do not have to go anywhere else. Home delivery service is also
provided to buyers and discount is given to attract more customers. This helps in development of
society because it is easy way and nowadays almost all the people are using smartphones and
they like to purchase products with the help of online shopping facility and want that good
services should be provided (Heinonen and Strandvik, 2018).

This issue has negative impact on the society as high street shops have been closed and due to
this many people will suffer loss. If people start buying from supermarkets then what about small
shops, how they will run their business. This will create a negative impact on the development of
society as if many shops are closed then how middle class people or poor people will purchase
products. So, this issue can be solved by making plans that street shops should be opened so that
in emergency people can buy from them and people who are not able to go to the market , they
can purchase products from supermarket and use home delivery services. This issue should be
used in positive way so that society can be developed and there will be no problem (Agila and
Arumugam, 2018).
CONCLUSION
From the essay it can be summarised that many high street shops have been closed because
shoppers are purchasing from large shopping centres. There are many reasons for this issue and it
has positive as well as negative impact on the development of society.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Agila, D. G. and Arumugam, D., 2018. A Study on effectiveness of promotional strategies at
Prozone mall with reference to visual merchandising. International Journal of
Innovations in Scientific and Engineering Research. 5(6). pp.47-56.
Heinonen, K. and Strandvik, T., 2018. Reflections on customers’ primary role in
markets. European Management Journal. 36(1). pp.1-11.
Ramanathan, U., and et.al., 2017. Impact of customer loyalty and service operations on customer
behaviour and firm performance: empirical evidence from UK retail sector. Production
Planning & Control. 28(6-8). pp.478-488.
Ratnasari, R. T., and et.al., 2020. Customer satisfaction between perceptions of environment
destination brand and behavioural intention. International Journal of Innovation,
Creativity and Change. 10(12). pp.472-487.
Szymkowiak, A., and et.al., 2021. The impact of emotions on shopping behavior during
epidemic. What a business can do to protect customers. Journal of Consumer
Behaviour. 20(1). pp.48-60.
Waddington, T. B., and et.al, 2018. Open all hours: spatiotemporal fluctuations in UK grocery
store sales and catchment area demand. The International Review of Retail, Distribution
and Consumer Research. 28(1). pp.1-26.
WIDAGDO, B. and ROZ, K., 2021. Hedonic Shopping Motivation and Impulse Buying: The
Effect of Website Quality on Customer Satisfaction. The Journal of Asian Finance,
Economics, and Business. 8(1). pp.395-405.