Many small, local shops are closing as they are unable to compete with large supermarkets in the area. How does this effect local communities? How could this situation be improved?

An increasing number of local stores are shutting down because they are not able to match up with superstores. As a result, the shop owners will lose their livelihood and also create inconveniences for the citizens. However, this can be tackled by the government offering incentives and by creating an online platform to support small businesses. Firstly, the main problem that local sellers suffer due to their incompetence with the supermarkets is loss of business. As supermarkets attract the citizens with a lot of offers and keep prices competitive, the public will prefer purchasing from them instead of the local counterparts. Thus, resulting in a serious problem for the small stores and putting their business at stake. Apart from that, residents especially the elderly and youngsters suffer due to the shutdown of the local stores as the hypermarkets are not available at nigh. For example, due to the unavailability of local shops, the citizens of Saudi Arabia have to travel at least 5 kilometers to reach their nearby hyper store that makes it inconvenient for young and elderly people to purchase groceries. To deal with the above issues, one solution would be that the government can support the local shop owners by providing them incentives to keep the expenditures low. This can be done by exempting tax and funding the supply chain to give the locals a price advantage over the supermarkets. This will result in an increased profit as well as the survival of the local stores in the competitive market. Furthermore, the latest technology can be utilized by making online software to promote local businesses. For instance, Big Basket an online store that works with domestic sellers provides free home delivery, attractive discounts, cash back, and loyalty programs to retain their clients. This has is so popular in India that people order their groceries from them instead of supermarkets. Hence, a similar software model would help not only in improving the local community but also prevent them from a financial crisis. In conclusion, many small shops are not in a position to compete against the supermarkets, this eventually creates a challenge to the domestic businesses as well as the local citizens. The above problems can be dealt with by offering financial support to the local owners along with promoting them on digital platforms.