Do you Think that Shopping Malls have Killed the Small traders?
By raveemenon
@raveemenon (1071)
India
8 responses
@lilaclady (28207)
• Australia
1 Feb 07
Yes I think they have, I see these poor family run little corner shops working early morning til evening every day of the week, most people going in for the things they have run out of, mainly bread and milk and the newspaper, it is a long day and I don't think they would be bringing in all that much...
@raveemenon (1071)
• India
1 Feb 07
I find the down fall of these small traders here in India very fast. the big malls do everything in the begining to make these poor shops close and later they dictate their own terms.
@pix_trix (447)
• India
2 Feb 07
no, never, shopping malls can never replace small traders, you are talking about a country like india, with a large number of people below poverty line, a large number of people in the lower class, lower middle class.. do you think they can afford to go to the shopping malls?? where will they go? to the local traders. no matter how many big bazaars or walmarts enter here, small traders can never go, because of the structure of the income groups.
1 person likes this
@raveemenon (1071)
• India
5 Feb 07
What you say is only one side of the fact. In Inida the usual shoppers are the middle class on whom the entire edifice of these malls are built. The poor who get hardly 30 Rs. per day never do gretat shopping. He shops only for dusserah and diwali. other days his shopping ends at the local licquor shop.Many small provision and textile stores had their customers from middle class. all of them are turning to these mall monsters. I wish your opinion comes true.
@rajivkumar900 (9861)
• India
2 Feb 07
i agree with this that Shopping Malls have Killed the Small traders. i think its not right .
@Willowlady (10658)
• United States
1 Feb 07
Om our area we have many small stores. Some medium stores, a couple of really large ones and then there is the mall up North of me. Within driving distance however, not where we go very often. We prefer the smaller guys. Now, having said that, I do alot of shopping on line, at church rummage sales, flea markets and consignment shops. If someone has what I want and they are reasonable then that is where I go. Some malls in my state are having a hard time keeping stores in the malls. The anchor ones are sometimes tough to find. One mall has a library attached. I really like that one!!!
1 person likes this
@raveemenon (1071)
• India
1 Feb 07
You seems to apply your brain in shopping.But you need to have time to choose. One another feature what i observed in these malls is that people pick up many things that they do not really require.It is often the frills or the 2 in one offer that lures them.
@patootie (3592)
•
1 Feb 07
Yes, definitely in my area .. we used to have all sorts of little shops in our village, even a bank and a building society ... now we are down to a butchers, one grocery shop (was 4) and a post office (probably about to shut) ..
But that's mainly because a lot of the newer folk to the village all work elsewhere .. so they do their shopping where they work .. and they probably only get a Sunday paper from traders in the village ...
Small shops can only stay open if we use them regularly .. I'm not a very good person to be saying all this as I rely on a big supermarket to home delivery my groceries .. but I have disabilities and would find it near impossible to shop for myself .. if the local shop did a delivery service I would use that more often than I do .. but I have asked and they haven't the staff nor could they afford the cost of the transport and all the required insurances and third party liabilities that are now demanded of companies .
1 person likes this
@raveemenon (1071)
• India
1 Feb 07
i was under the impression that these sweeping changes are more pronounced in a developing economy like ours. I feel sorry for the small traders . They dont have any other expertise or capital to move on..
Though the regulations on insurance and things like that are not yet stringent here , these small men resist change and that is one of the reasons for their down fall.
Nice to know the facts there. Thanks.
@franklin88 (333)
• India
1 Feb 07
No,even now 40% of middle class people buy things from small traders.
@stephcjh (38473)
• United States
1 Feb 07
I still like to shop at the small trader places. I don't like big crowds of people and the small traders have unique items that you cannot find in alot of stores in the mall.
