Analysis of sphere of influence in different shopping centres. Like Merry Hill and Kidderminster, Dudley has problems as well. The shops in Dudley are being closed down as many shoppers visit Merry Hill instead of Dudley resulting in a loss of businesses

Authors Avatar

Analysis

Analysis 1 : Sphere of Influence

From the car registration data, I can see that the settlement with the largest average distance travelled is Kidderminster (old), with 142.83km. This is followed by Dudley (131.10km). This is then followed by Merry Hill (111.312km). The settlement with the lowest average distance is therefore Kidderminster (new), with 93.44km. Most of the cars visiting Merry Hill came from Birmingham with 17 cars, followed by Worcester with 7 cars. Most of the cars visiting Kidderminster (old) came from Worcester with 9 cars, followed by Birmingham with 4 cars. Most of the cars visiting Kidderminster (new) came from Birmingham with 8 cars, followed by Worcester with 4 cars. Most of the cars visiting Dudley came from Worcester and Birmingham with a tie of 7 cars each, followed by Leeds with 3 cars. The furthest place that cars came from for Merry Hill was Dundee with 364.8 miles. The furthest place that cars came from for Kidderminster (old) was Keith with 482.5 miles. The furthest place that cars came from for Dudley was Glasgow with 286.9 miles. The furthest place that cars travelled from for Kidderminster (new) was Glasgow with 296.2 miles. There are no anomalies for Merry Hill. There is one anomaly for Kidderminster (new) and that is Glasgow. There is one anomaly for Dudley and that is Glasgow. There is one anomaly for Kidderminster (old) and that is Keith.  My hypothesis is therefore false.

In my original hypothesis, I had said that Merry Hill will have the largest sphere of influence and therefore be at the top of the hierarchy. Therefore my hypothesis is false. I think this is because my data couldn’t have been very accurate because as we used car registrations to show the sphere of influence. My results clearly show where the car was registered from, however this is not the best indicator as it cannot support us in telling us where the car has actually traveled from, as a person may live in a different area to where the car was registered. I also think that from the way we collected the car registrations, my results aren’t random because we didn’t pick the car registrations randomly and this could have affected my results. I think that this is because people look at other factors such as environmental quality, shop quality etc. instead of size and population. This would be true for Kidderminster (old) as it had a good environmental and shop quality and it didn’t have a very high population or very big in size and yet it clearly has a larger sphere of influence than Merry Hill, therefore people must look at all the other aspects of Kidderminster (old) instead of just looking at the size of it. I think it could also be because shopping habits have changed from the past few years and people tend to prefer looking at comparison and convenience shops as they prefer a wide range of variety and since Merry Hill mainly consists of comparison shops, maybe this influenced shoppers and it could explain why Kidderminster (old) has a larger sphere of influence as it has a wider range of comparison and convenience shops , therefore showing variety and influencing people to travel farther to shop. Kidderminster (old) however doesn’t have the facilities that Merry Hill has such as clean toilets, car parks with free parking and all should influence people to travel farther to shop. Merry Hill has many other facilities such as air conditioning, restaurants, toilets, cinemas and benches all attracting many people daily.  Merry Hill has a high threshold as well as a high range .Merry Hill is also the second largest shopping centre in the UK, this makes it makes it well marketed by TV adverts, leaflets, brochures and therefore a very well known shopping centre that many people are willing to visit often.  

Implications of my Findings

However there are many problems that Merry Hill has to face on a daily basis. Having over 6 million people visiting constantly throughout the year resulting in the majority of the local roads around Merry Hill becoming congested leading to air and noise pollution. The free car parking in Merry Hill attracts many car owners resulting in the car parks becoming very packed, which increases the crime rate in Merry Hill as the majority of cars contain valuables leading to the cars being stolen or broken into. Reports show that car theft has increased by a 5%, from the original 18% to 23%. Something not many people are fond of. Another complication is that shoplifting has risen by 3%, from 24% to 27% over the last year, especially during the holiday seasons, such as Christmas and Easter.

The building of Weavers Wharf has taken a surprisingly bad effect on Kidderminster, something I’m sure nobody anticipated. It has taken customers from other parts of Kidderminster to the new areas, areas where customers aren’t very desperately needed. Kidderminster contains many transport links, the majority of which are linked to the town centre causing an increase in air and noise pollution. Kidderminster is very easily accessible and because it has links surrounding the town centre, leading to a dense population with customers and tourists, all of this leads to the discouragement of people from visiting the area due to the crowdedness.

Like Merry Hill and Kidderminster, Dudley has problems as well. The shops in Dudley are being closed down as many shoppers visit Merry Hill instead of Dudley resulting in a loss of businesses and a very poor income. This has a negative multiplier effect on the inhabitants of Dudley as more and more people become unemployed leading to fewer and fewer job opportunities for the majority of the people living in Dudley. Dudley has an unattractive appearance, grey and dull in colour with very few greenery causing people to have a very unattractive and low opinion of Dudley itself. Dudley also has few or no CCTV cameras causing shoppers to fear for themselves, and it encourages crime.

Solutions to the above problems:

For Merry Hill’s congestion problems, Merry Hill could invest some of their money into using a park and scheme. This would mean that owners of vehicles would park their cars a further distance away from Merry Hill and so reducing congestion and as the owners would probably have to pay for parking their cars, which in turn would reduce the number of people visiting Merry Hill everyday, and that in turn would help reduce congestion in the area. It would also help solve the noise and air pollution problem because with less cars traveling to Merry Hill this means less noise in the area and less cars also mean less air pollution. For a reduction in crime rates, Merry Hill could hire more security guards, which helps reduce the unemployment rate near Merry Hill, and they could also buy more CCTV cameras to catch the criminals committing the crimes. New transport links could be made linking many of the smaller settlements to Merry Hill, including Kidderminster and Dudley. More bus lanes and metro links could be made within Merry Hill encouraging people to use other forms of transport rather than car, these forms of transport such as buses and trains are forms of public transport and would therefore reduce congestion and pollution in the area.

As Kidderminster has a limited number of toilets and car parks and because people have a view that it is unhygienic, perhaps, money should be invested in making the area look cleaner. TV adverts, brochures, leaflets etc. could be used to publicize Kidderminster, as it is not very well known, all the above would help enhance Kidderminster’s popularity resulting in an increase in customers and visitors to the area. Rent payments, and product prices could be lowered to prevent business losses and the closure of some businesses and shops.

Join now!

For Dudley I would suggest that new transport links could be developed, all of which should be linked to all major shopping centres around the UK, making Dudley more accessible, which would attract more visitors and customers to Dudley, and therefore an increase in business.

I think that one of the advantages of the park and ride solution for Merry Hill is that the number of people visiting Merry Hill on a daily basis will decrease massively, therefore reducing the congestion near the settlement, which in turn would help reduce the air and noise pollution ...

This is a preview of the whole essay