There is a growing trend that customers can obtain food from different parts of the world in supermarkets. While this action can have many drawbacks, I still believe that it is beneficial for people, far outweighing the disadvantages.
On the one hand, this trend can have some adverse effects on the local products. To begin with, branded foods can threaten the local food production, reducing customers’ attention to the local one. This is because these foods are easier to preserve thanks to the application of technology and chemical substances, which are absent in domestic products. For example, food from international companies can be stored for years, while the local ones can only be kept for days and months, while ensuring the taste and physical health of users. Moreover, international products’ labels are more appealing with well-organized and standardized designs, associated with their renowned reputation worldwide. Therefore, people are more likely to purchase these products over domestic ones, attributed to the assumption that an appealing layout is correlated with better quality, resulting in diminishing local food revenue and reducing
On the other hand, easy access to international food is advantageous for people for many reasons. Initially, as customers can sample food from many different countries simply by choosing in supermarkets, they can gain more insights into other cuisines and cultures without traveling overseas, which requires substantial savings and careful planning. As a result, people can broaden their culinary knowledge in the fastest way. Furthermore, this trend can also accelerate trading between different parts of the world and open more markets in foreign countries, which offers more opportunities for domestic products. Such an action, consequently, can not only stimulate cultural exchanges globally, but also downplay the downside of brand products toward the local ones.
In conclusion, while this trend can threaten local food revenue by shifting consumers’ attention to global brands, I still believe that it can also open more opportunities for domestic products. Furthermore, it can also expand people’s knowledge, enriching their experience most conveniently and affordably, which far outweighs the negative side.