Shopping malls, previously reserved for affluent areas, have, over the past fifteen years or so, infiltrated poor black townships and relatively dense rural areas at a rapid rate. To begin with the latter, it is worthwhile iterating the fact that shopping malls bring choice, convenience, and proximity, reducing travelling distances considerably. Shopping malls generate jobs – Shopping malls do indeed led to the creation of jobs, no doubt. A further indictment is that township malls are recording higher trading densities (sales turnover per rentable square meter) and outperforming more established suburban markets. They are profiting not from new money, but from displaced expenditure that would otherwise be spent on small businesses.

Source: News 24 February 25, 2019 06:00 UTC