IELTS writing 2 Topic: Many small, local shops are closing as they are unable to compete with large supermarkets in the area. How does this affect local communities? How could this situation be improved? It's a known fact that small grocery shops, vegetable, fruit, and fish stalls have become less popular with the arrival of large supermarkets.Many of these small shops gradually lose business and finally close down. With the pressure in the corporate world, people presently have less and less time to spend on chores such as food shopping. Therefore they find it very convenient if they can locate their every need under one roof. With their ability to sell in mass quantities, supermarkets have the advantage of selling goods at lower prices, keeping lower profit margins. With these advantages, supermarkets can easily overtake local small businesses. This can affect the income that the local business owners depend on badly. Most importantly, it can have an effect on entrepreneurship as the beginnings of most business empires is a small local shop. To save local business communities, governments have to play a major role. One of the actions a government can take could be to increase taxes on supermarkets so that the local shops can match their prices with those of the supermarkets. A further action could be to build large marketplaces to house and support many small shops where the customers can find everything they need in one place. Another action could be to encourage local entrepreneurs to start businesses by giving them financial assistance. For example, they could provide low-interest business start-up loans. Although customers can buy food at cheaper prices from supermarkets, I strongly believe that it's necessary to maintain local businesses. I also believe that large markets with small shops offering a variety of goods can offer strong competition to supermarkets.