Prompt: in recent years, many small local shops have closed because customers travel to large shopping centers or malls to do their shipping. Is this a positive or a negative development?

The debate around whether the phenomenon of closing local shops thanks to the changing of individuals' purchasing habits is beneficial or detrimental has raged on recently. I, for one, approve of the idea that it would be disastrous. This essay delves into the issue and provides logical reasons before drawing a conclusion. Ċ On the one hand, ceasing the operation of local shops would have negative implications first and foremost is changing the culture. In terms of culture, this means that local shops are part of the local communities which are the most important aspects of people's tradition and culture, so closing the shops eventually makes a distance between them. Secondly, not only does it cause damaging effects on the culture, but it would also have bad impacts on the middle-class people's financial status. In other words, many shops will be closed, so many family breadwinners will be unemployed or even broke and then could not meet their family's needs. Ċ On the other hand, due to the globalization fact, closing local shops and changing buyers' behaviour definitely is inevitable, for two reasons they could be even advantageous. Firstly, purchasing from big shopping centres and malls enables users to have more choices, and as these shops offer competitive prices and bargains, purchasing would be more affordable for the mass of people. In addition people especially the young, would be exposed to countless job opportunities, such as a store manager, accountant, truck driver, and seller. According to statistics which have been published by the New York Times magazine, countries that feature hypermarkets and malls have had at least 60 per cent financial growth. Ċ Having taken all into consideration, as far as I am concerned, the demerits of closing local shops outweigh the merits, and it is better to keep them because they are part of our culture.