Nowdays, we are experiencing a trend of large supermarket chains spreading through cities and towns. While doing so they are also slowing down small shops or putting them completely out of business. While there are numerous advantages of supermarkets, like getting all items at the same place and uniformity in the quality of products sold, the disadvantages, such as sole monopoly of supermarket chains and slowing down the economy of small towns, outweigh the advantages. This essay will discuss both perspectives in detail, ultimately asserting that the drawbacks of supermarkets outweigh their benefits.
On the one hand, supermarket chains offer a variety of advantages. Generally, supermarkets keep plethora of products on display. As a result, customers don’t have to visit numerous stores looking for different items. For instance, traditionally, while shopping for groceries, shoppers go to a vegetable market, a butcher’s shop and general store to secure all the goods. Supermarkets prove to be time-savers because of availability of all the items in one store. In addition, supermarkets also ensure that quality of products sold in their store is high. Many supermarkets exclusively sell name brand products, as opposed to loose products sold at normal shops. Most individuals prefer nicely packaged branded goods over loose items as they provide consistent quality.
On the other hand, the prevelence of supermarkets can have severe impact on supply-chain and the economy of small towns. It is often observed that the popularity of supermarkets among the general population puts most of the independent stores out of business. The independent stores are not able to keep up with low costs offered by supermarkets because they don’t have a large supplychain to back them up. This can create havoc on the economies of small towns as most residents are dependent on these stores for their income. Even if supermarkets hire some of the residents to work at their store, they only pay minimum wages and all the profits that they earn by selling are not invested back into local economy. Therefore, a large supermarket store can significantly slow down the ecomomic growth of a small town. Furthermore, supermarkets establish monopoly over supplychains in a region. Due to the monopoly, there is no competition to rival the supermarket store prices. This can give unlimited power to large corporations to manipulate prices of all goods.
In conclusion, while supermarkets offer some benefits, like ease of shopping and guarenteed quality of products, overall the drawbacks of supermarkets, such as destruction of economies of small towns and monopoly over supply chains outweigh the advantages. In my opinion, citizens and governments must ensure that supermarket chains do dot take over small shops all over the country.