The Impact and Ethics of Supermarket Expansion into Small Towns - Leominster - Research Paper Example

The specific case of Morrison’s in Leominster Herefordshire is examined. To clarify the aim of the case study is to see how much past research and literature holds the Leominster case and to see if our specific research in Leominster differs from the nationwide surveys already carried out.It is hypothesized that out-of-town supermarkets (especially Morrison’s) have eaten away the business of traditional retail shops (by substantially reducing their sales and profit) in Leominster town centre, center resulted in shop closures and have therefore, contributed in unemployment because of these shop closures.

These supermarkets have competitive advantages over in-town centres because of their bulk-buying (thus lower costs), product variety and because the fact they were four times the size of any town centre supermarket thus can afford to offer free parking due to space availability. A survey will be conducted to see if supermarket have really had a negative impact over these businesses in Leominster and have forced them to shut-down their business centres.Currently, there are a number of conflicting reports as to what extent market towns have been affected by the building of out of town supermarkets.

The phenomenal growth of out-of-town supermarkets because of changing lifestyles of people all across the world (this will be elaborated in chapter one) compelled British government to conduct its own survey in September on nine market town locations in Britain to know the impact of these new supermarkets on small businesses and markets in town centers. From the DETR survey, it was revealed that there was a measurable impact on the town centres, drawing people out to the outskirts to use these new supermarkets and avoiding using the shops in the centre of town.