In certain countries, small town-local shops close aswe drive to larger stores in the city. This means that those without cars will have very limited access to shops away from the city, and thus potentially increase car usage. Do you agree that the cons of this change outweighthe pros?
In certain countries, small town-local shops close aswe drive to larger stores in the city. This means that those without cars will have very limited access to shops away from the city, and thus potentially increase car usage. Do you agree that the cons of this change outweighthe pros?
The slow demise of small high street shops in favour of large retail stores located on the outskirts of towns is a major change in consumer habits bearing wide-ranging social, economic and environmental effects. Although there are some benefits to this trend — especially for consumer selection and prices — I am convinced that the disadvantages far outweigh any tangible benefit.
The strongest case for big retail parks is their ability to provide much greater choice at lower prices. Big retailers benefit from economies of scale that enable them to beat the prices of smaller competitors, transferring those savings outright to customers. For car-owning homes with flexibility in their travel, the convenience of doing all shopping at a single destination is genuinely welcome and deems a considerable saving of both time & money.
Yet this change also comes with potentially more serious disadvantages affecting a much wider segment of the population. At first glance, however, the most burning and urgent issue is how car-free groups — the elderly, young children, disabled citizens or low-income groups — are becoming isolated from retail accessibility. A lot of those groups are especially affected when local shops close, because public transport links to large out-of-town shopping centres are often woefully inadequate or even nonexistent. Such a troubling paradox means that the functionally impoverished are being excluded from the very low prices that big box chains often purport to provide.
The environmental implications are equally disturbing. This leads to car dependency as local shops close, meaning residents must travel much further afield for basic necessities. This is the complete antithesis to why we ought to be moving away from carbon emissions and towards more sustainable urban mobility patterns. Expansion of hypermarkets on the urban fringe also leads to multi-polar suburbanisation, reinforcing car dependence and undermining walkable, mixed communities that enable both health improvement and carbon mitigation.
The closure of small town-centre businesses also does a lot of damage to the social and economic fabric in local communities, far beyond environmental issues. Independent shops are more than just shops – they are places people meet, workplaces for local residents, champions of local supply chains and add to the unique character and identity of their communities. Their closure results in high street vacancies that begin cycles of decline which, once started, it is notoriously difficult to resolve; reducing footfall, leading to further disinvestment and deteriorating the quality of community life for all residents (car owner and non-car owner).
In addition, much of that retail consumer expenditure goes to an ever-shrinking pool of corporations — bank branch and HQ functions — letting wealth escape the local economy through shareholder profits which are not reinvested in the community. This imbalance not only worsens economic disparity throughout the region but undermines both local economic diversity and resilience.
To sum up, although out-of-town retail boxes greatly enhance price and product range — benefits which accrue to those who have the means to travel a little further — they just serve to bolster an already mobile and affluent consumer. The more serious and widespread costs of social exclusion among vulnerable populations, the exacerbation of environmental degradation, and the weakening of community identity. This is why governments need to step in — with planning regulations, public transport investment and small business support schemes — to keep heart-of-the-community retail spaces even as they also cater for the larger commercial experience.