Retail services (shopping) are so important in people’s lives because it means that people can purchase luxury goods it can also be a socialising meeting point for people. Retail services sell useful products that the community needs and would benefit from. Some retail services provide conveniences goods. This is important to people because they have the opportunity to get their daily needs. Other retail services provide people with clothing, entertainments, and home furniture’s etc. theses are all important in people’s lives without clothes people will be cold during the winter.
Not all shopping centres provide the same goods and services. Smaller shopping centres provide everyday essential goods for people. They also supply their goods in smaller quantities. Whereas, larger shopping centres provide a wider range of products and in bigger quantities. Shopping centres located in a smaller settlement supply their customers with fewer goods. Villages are a good example of small shopping centres. This can be because there are fewer people to provide products for as not a lot of people live in the villages. However, most large settlements are located in cities, in the central business district.
‘Out-of-town’ shopping centres are being built because it makes money for the business that owns it. There are also larger areas that are cheaper to buy or rent for business use. There is more space for development for a bigger shopping centre. The advantages of and ‘out-of-town’ shopping centre is that it provides costumers with a free parking space, which is more convenient for people.
Land on the edge of cities is being used to build houses, schools, roads and car parks for the shopping centres. It is also being used to build other useful facilities such as parks and leisure centres.
There is a conflict about how such areas of lands called `development sites` are used because some developments cause harm to the land such as cars and factories pollution.
When deciding how land should be developed, the factors that planner has to take into account are the residents living nearby also whether the development would effect the environment and all its inhabitants. They also have to put into account the advantages and disadvantages it would bring to the public.
When a new shopping centre is proposed, many different groups of people might be affected by this development. The elderly, teenagers, middle class, lower class and working class might be affected but the way each group is affected is different. The elderly would find living next to a shopping centre difficult this is because many people would visit the shopping centre that means a lot of noise would be made disturbing the elderly. However, for some elderly it could be a chance for them to keep themselves busy by strolling down to the shopping centre. Teenagers would see it has a opportunity to go shopping regularly which would make the retail services more money also the teenagers would go the shopping centre as a place where they could go and talk to friend and keep themselves warm in the winter. The shopping centre would also give some teenagers an opportunity to earn money as they could work there. It would keep teenagers entertained.
