Band 5+: You should spend about 40 minutes on this task. Write about the following topic: It can be difficult for small local shops to compete with large supermarkets and with on-line shops. How does this affect local communities? What could be done to improve this situation? Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge and experience. Write at least 250 words.

Small local shops are struggling to compete with large supermarkets alomg with on-line shops. This can lead to worsening the living conditions of local communities. A solution to that problem could be to encourage these local businesses to sell on-line too.

Large supermarkets and on-line shops having the upper hand when it comes to selling items contributes negatively towards small businesses, as most people are spending their money on big corporations rather than small local businesses. On the long run, the local shop would have to close, since the owner wouldn’t be able to support himself financially nor handle the costs. Thus, significantly affecting his living conditions as he would have no means of making money. Moreover, some of these local businesses donate towards a good cause that help out with problems that can be found in the neighbborhood. Therefore, not having any revenue means that these problems won’t be solved and would just stack up, which means altering the area and making it worse. For instance, a local clothing shop was forced to shut down its door as it was not able to compete with big corportations such as Shein, because of the difference in pricing. This lead to local teenagers not being able to get clothes as with each item bought in that shop a clothing item was donated to the local shelter.

A solution to that problem, is to encourage these local business to put their items online to sell them, which would mean that a higher number of people sees them. Thus, there are higher chance that they would buy them. In addition, putting your products online is very easy, especially through social media, since with just a click you can post your items online, and the advertising is automatically done by the social media platform. For instance, most people launched their business online during covid, just because how easy selling online was and how far the advertised item would reach around the world.

To conclude, local business not being able to keep up with big corporations affects the living conditions of these communities pushing them towards the worst. To improve them, local business could consider selling their products online.