When we visited my parents at the weekend, we went up to the local shopping centre. This has changed drastically since I was a child. Several years ago it was renovated and made into a pleasant indoor mall:
but in the last year or so, they've been extending it and extending it. There's a huge supermarket at one end, which seems to be much hated, and nowhere near as well used as other supermarkets of the same chain. There's lots of empty retail space in the extended mall:
But while these spaces all lie empty, what are they building next to the existing huge supermarket? Houses? Community services? NO, they're building, wait for it, another huge supermarket of a rival chain. Meanwhile green fields on the edge of town are being covered in houses.
People need houses of course, and they need somewhere to buy food, clothes and other essentials. However there seems to be absolutely no justification for building a huge new supermarket next door to an existing huge and underused supermarket. Why not build houses on this site and save the fields?
It's the same in another town near where my parents live, two huge supermarkets are being built next to each other, while houses are built on fields. It doesn't make sense to me. It surely doesn't even make commercial sense for the supermarkets involved.
I really miss the small, mom-and-pop grocery stores. There's still a few left but not many :(
ReplyDeletethat happens a lot in the states, too. competition comes in until neither can make a decent profit.
ReplyDeleteI think the competition can be fierce. It is a shame and seems wasteful. Have a happy weekend!
ReplyDeleteStick to rabbits Juliet. They make more sense =;<)
ReplyDeleteThe same thing is happening in our area. Land that could be used for housing is converted to yet another huge supermarket. One of our local coastal towns now has six large supermarkets within a ten minute drive of each other, and now they want to build houses on a greatly valued field of allotments....!
ReplyDeletenever does make sense,xx Rachel
ReplyDelete