Shopping malls have become one of the most preferred place to buy necessary items these days. This has led to setting down of micro and medium shops. This is, infact, a negative development. I will share few facts regarding this trend in the forthcoming paragraphs.
The first and foremost point is that due to the expansion of shopping centres, massive loss has incurred to small and medium enterprises. Additionally, entrepreneurs of these small shops usually take loans to carry forward their businesses. However, high amount of interests are charged by the banks. Due to low profits, owners are unable to pay back their loan amounts and hence suffer huge losses.
Furthermore, many incidents have been reported of people attempting suicides as a result of failure of their shops. Recently, a cosmetic shop owner died of suicide because he was not able to pay the lease amount of his shop. Such conditions engender deteoriation of mental along with physical health.
Apart from this, a grave impact can also be seen on the economy of a country. As per a survey conducted by National Business Association, it was found out that since 2016, there has been a drop of 27 percent in small businesses. Owners have either shut down or have transferred their shops to some other persons.
To summarize, shopping malls and outlets have made a devastating impact on the growth of small enterprises. These businesses have suffered huge financial losses, drop outs in the number of local business, and loss of life and health. All these reasons clearly indicates the negative effect of large shopping centres. However, the government and industrial heads should consider these findings and formulate laws and policies for the betterment of nation’s small business owners