Shopping Malls and the Street Markets in India

Whether the attractive and appealing shops would replace the local markets or not has been a debate for many years. Although many believe that the former will eventually replace the latter in future, I think that the large malls would never supersede the small ones because of the cost difference between them and the reliable nature between the buyer and the seller.

Often, some market segment would rather prefer to go local market shops as they are relatively cheaper than those in a beautiful showroom. It might not be a significant issue for the higher class segment; however, some people, especially living in developing countries, cannot afford a branded dress from the luxuries mall. Instead, they would prefer to buy many items at the same price. Therefore, owing to the necessity of the small-worthy shops, there will not be any replacement for the local markets.

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Shopping malls are attracting customers with multi stories buildings with a large number of stores under one roof. People consider that they can finish all their shopping and save time in all most all malls customers can get clothes, food courts, banks, pharmacies, groceries, cinemas, restaurants and much more. But with all these benefits, there are some negatives also while shopping in malls.

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Moreover, while buying any goods such as groceries, many think that large industries and brands are inciting various harmful chemicals to the products and thus, they are unreliable. For instance, it is proven that a well-known brand from Southeast Asia was engineering many dangerous products into their vegetables in order to look and stay fresh for a significant amount of time. This news was telecasted in major news channels, making people start buying their food items in local stores. Hence, an unreliable store like this would never substitute the domestic market.

In India all residential colonies are operating local markets named “Santa” (Street Market) organized every week, which is attracting customers of shopping malls and departmental stores, it allows customers the convenience, low buying cost and satisfaction of the freshness of products when compared to malls.

Some believe they both can coexist by helping each other. Majority of Local markets are formed by farmers or the dealers form rural areas if they are making an agreement with these people they can make the business profitable to both.