In recent years, because of urbanisation, a mushroom growth of large shopping malls has been seen in the suburbs of the cities and towns. Many people are worried that this phenomenon may lead to the increase in use of cars and endanger local businesses. Looking at the drawbacks of having large shopping malls in the outskirts of cities, I believe that the gains can be overlooked.
Admittedly, because of cheaper land price, outlets and mega shopping centres in the suburbs can generally offer consumers with a plethora choice of merchandises at a fractional of the cost compared to those found in boutique shops in town centres, thus customers can rake in all the benefits. It looks perfect on paper, yet not so much in reality if you take a closer look.
To start with, cheaper lands are cheaper for a reason. Often these locations are remote with poor access to public road networks, and public transport is almost unheard of. Therefore, shoppers are left with no choice but drive their cars and have to spend hours on congested roads to reach their destinations, putting great pressure on air quality and road safety. To more things even worse, people without vehicles either because of lower socio-economic status or limited mobility are deprived of the opportunity to frequent these shops, potentially widening the gaps between social classes.
What is more, unlike town-centre shops that operate and pay taxes locally, multinational conglomerates can often get away with their tax responsibilities while putting their small-business competitors to extinction. Take Amazon as an example, the retail giant reported $5.6 billion in profits in 2017, however, to the astonishment of the public, the company paid $0 tax to the US government. I am no expert in corporate tax laws, but the bottom line is, local communities are not benefited from these mega shops and as a result, powerless to invest in infrastructures to rectify issues caused by these out-of-town shops.
To put it in a nutshell, I pen down saying that, having shopping centres in the suburbs definitely has more disadvantages than advantages.