Key Terms I will be using in my project:
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Hypothesis – the statement I outlined at the start of my investigation that I hope to prove either right or wrong.
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Hierarchy – referring to Shopping hierarchy, as explained above
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Spheres of influence – specifically referring to the area which is influenced by (in this investigation’s case) either Castlepoint shopping centre or Winton shopping centre.
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Anomalies – results that don’t fit in with the rest of my results set. These give obscure, twisted results if included in the analysis.
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CBD (Central Business District) – An Area of town identified by many shops, offices and such which indicates a main shopping area.
What is a shopping hierarchy?
Shops can be placed into a hierarchy based on the services they provide. At the bottom of the hierarchy are small shops selling low order, convenience goods (e.g. bread and milk). At the top are the shops selling high order goods (e.g. furniture and electrical goods). The diagram below shows the comparison between the shopping hierarchy from thirty to forty years ago and present, modern day shopping hierarchy:
As you can see, regional out of town shopping centres and out of town superstores have appeared into modern day shopping hierarchy over the past forty years. This is mainly due to an increase in personal mobility, with more public transport being introduced and of course a huge increase in the number of cars, which leads to people being able to buy in bulk and take it all home with them. This of course leads to a decline in the number of corner shops in today’s hierarchy as people are able to buy the same products cheaper and in more bulk from supermarkets. Many shops in the CBD, suburban parades and secondary centres have also relocated into main shopping centres to promote themselves, again leading to a decline in the all three of these segments of the hierarchy. It is also a key point to note the distribution of the parts to the hierarchy. The trend is that those parts closer to the peak of the pyramid are in smaller quantities, for instance there are more corner shops than suburban parades (high streets), as demonstrated on the pyramid.
Press releases: The main press release marking the opening of the Castlepoint centre is shown on page 8. This also forms part of my secondary data. I also have a newspaper article below showing the dedication that Marks and Spencer’s appear to have made towards the new centre at Castlepoint. The cutting was taken from the Daily Echo, Saturday May 17th, 2003:
A quote from Cllr John Millward, Bournemouth Borough Council:
In a short telephone conversation with Cllr John Millward I asked him what he thought of the new Castlepoint development and how he thought it would affect the Winton shopping district. He told me he thought it would “promote new business to the Charminster area” and that “it was a great improvement to finally give Bournemouth a reason to be on the map!”. He also told me that he thought Winton was a shopping district “going out of fashion” and that it was time for Bournemouth to “reinvent” itself with a brand new shopping area.
Sequence in which I am going to do the work:
- Data Collection Preparation: Designing a questionnaire, a traffic count survey and a people count survey.
- Data Collection – Visit both the Winton and Castlepoint shopping centres and carry out my collection.
- Data Analysis – Make conclusions from my results. Explained in more detail by using graphs, bar charts and tables.
- Summary of findings – I will then summarise what I have discovered during the course of the project and what strong conclusions I can now make based on my results.
- Conclusion – Write my final, concluding thoughts on the project.
- Evaluation – Evaluate my methods and identify improvement targets.
My Questionnaire
When designing my questionnaire I had to bear some factors in mind. I had to consider how to get as much information out of as few questions as possible. I also had to be respectful to the people I was going to be interviewing.
I came up with the questionnaire (shown on page 20) for use in both Winton and Castlepoint shopping centres (the questionnaire shown here is obviously for Castlepoint, but the content is exactly the same for both). Its ‘universal’ design allowed me to take it to both centres and get exactly the same information I needed so I could easily compare each centre to the other.
Raw data results:
Raw data comparisons between Castlepoint and Winton Shopping Centres – Geography Coursework 2003/4
Data Analysis: Castlepoint’s results on the left, Winton’s on the right
Below are the results shown on either pie or bar charts (depending on the question) to enable analysis to be easier:
CASTLEPOINT WINTON
Age:
Evidently enough we can initially see that the vast majority of people shopping at Castlepoint are aged between 41 plus. At Winton, there are approximately 50% of people aged below 40 and approximately 50% aged over 40. This would initially indicate the Winton targets an even spread of customers.
Area of residence:
As is clear from the bar graph results here, both shopping centres are attracting customers from the immediate areas mainly. At the Castlepoint centre, Charminster, Winton and Boscombe are some of the main targeted areas, but surprisingly people from places as far out as Christchurch are visiting the centre to shop. At Winton, The main bulk of people are from Winton itself and others from nearby areas such as Ensbury Park and Moordown. Only a few come further a field to visit Winton.
Transport method:
At Castlepoint, as predicted, the main method of transport is the car, with only approximately a sixth of people opting for the bus. About a seventh has walked, and a minority have cycled. At Winton, there is a much more distributed set of results. About a third have taken the car, while approximately a quarter have walked and another quarter have taken the bus. The remainder took the train, rode their bikes, or used some other method of transport.
Time to travel to centre:
The time to travel results support my hypothesis by showing me that people shopping at Castlepoint are much more likely to have come a further distance to shop there than at Winton. At Castlepoint there is an even spread of distances while at Winton a vast majority of shoppers have spent under 20 minutes reaching Wimborne road.
How often do you shop here?
People show themselves to shop at Winton much more frequently than they do Castlepoint. This is probably down to the fact that many shoppers use Winton for convenience shopping and need to restock regularly, while Castlepoint is used as a main shopping centre where people aim to buy in bulk cheaper. Many older customers appear to be slightly intimidated by Castlepoint at the moment and use ‘traditional’ Winton much more for their shopping.
Why do you shop here?
People seem to shop at Castlepoint because of its range of shops, value for money and on a smaller scale ease of location and parking facilities. This again supports my hypothesis in that Castlepoint is worth going further a field for. With Winton, the outlying reason for people shopping there is the location. When coupled with convenience this shows very clearly that people shop at Winton because of accessibility and ease.
Shopping for?
People shop at Castlepoint mainly for food and partly other items. It is necessary to bear in mind though, that when this survey was taken, only the main supermarkets and B&Q were officially open to the public. At Winton you can see initially the range of shops that the shopping centre promotes. There are many food shoppers like Castlepoint, but there are a fair number of people for every other category listed that are shopping for some other purpose. There are also people from Winton who are not even there for the purposes of shopping, which indicates that the centre lies on a busy, working road and not an official shopping centre, more of a High Street.
Castlepoint vs. Winton? Winton needs what to compete?
From these two results, I can see initially that although Castlepoint has a good popularity among those that shop there, there are still many more people who overall prefer Winton. When asked, people responded with what Winton needed. The main things were more top-brand supermarkets and larger shops. A fair amount of people were also happy to say that Winton doesn’t need anything to compete with Castlepoint.
Plotted spheres of influence based on shopper’s area of residence:
Castlepoint shopping centre, as of 13th May 2003:
Winton shopping centre as of 15th May 2003:
In depth analysis of results:
Age: I can see from the age results that the Castlepoint complex is appealing more to older customers (41-60) than it is to the much older or much younger generations. This is probably down to the fact that it is new, modern, and less established without being too daunting. Winton’s results show that there is a very even balance of age differences among shoppers with the results ever so slightly edging towards a majority of older (60+) customers.
Area of residence: This is the main result which shows the sphere of influence for the two shopping centres. I can see that the main bulk of shoppers at Castlepoint are locals, i.e. from Charminster, Winton and surrounding areas. The surprising result is the Christchurch count, where roughly 15% of shoppers came from. I would imagine this is because Christchurch has no centralised shopping district and people have found Castlepoint to be the next best alternative – all the shops they’d need in one complex. In Winton, the three most presiding areas of residence are Winton itself, Ensbury Park and Moordown. These are three of the closet areas to Winton, and judging by the results of the ‘Why do you shop here?’ results (this showing that people chose Winton because of convenience and a close location) the fact that people come from these areas is no surprise. There are not many people that come from other areas, so Winton is definitely trying to target the locals to shop.
Transport Method: At Castlepoint, the main transport method is most definitely the car. Castlepoint has the ability to accommodate 3,000 cars and this is no doubt an encouragement for customers to use them. Using a car is probably the most sensible idea as many people will have bought in bulk from the big supermarkets and stores and will have heavy bags to carry after a decent shop. To be realistic it isn’t feasible to use a bus when you have many bags and the car is the only real way of transport into this shopping centre. At Winton again the majority of people use their cars, but also a remarkably large proportion of people use the bus or walk to the shops. Being on a busy commercial road the council have capitalised on public transport in this area and have introduced vast numbers of bus stops along the road to encourage people to use the buses. As there are no car parking facilities except neighbouring streets and the limited space on Wimborne Road itself, it is majorly encouraged to drop your car at this shopping district. The council’s public transport scheme appears to be working judging by these results.
Time to travel: Considering that both shopping centres are within 4 miles of each other, it would mean approximately 8-10 minutes to get to one another by car or a direct bus route. It is therefore interesting to see that although for both centres the majority of people spend under 20 minutes to reach their destination there is a definite clear number of people who come further-a-field to shop at Castlepoint – for example Three Legged Cross, Christchurch, Ferndown and Ringwood. There are very few people who are willing to travel more than half and hour to get to Winton.
Regularity of visits: The bar graphs shown on the previous page suggest that Winton is regarded as much more of a ‘quick-stop’ shopping centre where customers can grab ‘bits and bobs’. Castlepoint appears to be much more of a ‘main-stop shop’ for people as hardly anybody admits to visiting the centre on a daily basis. At Winton the majority of people visit on a daily basis. Couple this with the age ratings and you have a result which stereotypes the views on older members of the public – those which shop on a daily basis to pick up daily essentials, while being much less cost-efficient.
Why people shop where they do: At Castlepoint there is a fairly spread out range of views where many people shop for its range of shops and value for money. Only a few people rate it on the parking ease and its location. At Winton, however, it is very clear to see that the bulk of people shop there because of its location – its is local, has what the need, quickly and simply. The convenience factor outweighs all others when it comes to Winton, as many people simply cannot be fussed to travel the extra ten minutes to Castlepoint for slightly cheaper prices at the big name stores.
Shopping for? : People seem to shop at Castlepoint mainly for food. This result is not completely reliable as it stands, however, as many of the retail outlets are not yet open and only approximately half of Castlepoint is open at the moment to the public. At Winton, there is again a majority of people food shopping. Supermarkets such as Waitrose and Lidl will attract the crowd of food shoppers in this department. There is also a demand for Household, Electrical (Videos/DVDs/CDs) and clothes shopping in Winton which is answered mainly by franchised and smaller businesses. In Winton 18 people were not even there for shopping, which shows that roughly twenty percent of people at Winton were just walking along it to get places (it is after all, a very busy road).
Castlepoint verses Winton: When asked, approximately 70% of people were in favour of Winton, 20% in favour of Castlepoint and 10% not sure. I would personally imagine that this is because Castlepoint has not had a chance to develop a name for itself, nor is it fully open yet, and Winton – being an established reliable shopping district is much better known as a good place to shop. People have come to rely on Wimborne road for their needs and they see no reason to change now (‘If it isn’t broke, there’s no need to fix it’).
Product key questions:
- How do people rate the quality of each shopping centre? (Variety, choice etc.)
- What are the spheres of influence for each shopping centre and how do they change from one another?
- Do customers travel further to a retail park like Castlepoint rather than to a CBD?
- Do customers use a retail park as frequently as they do a CBD?
- Do customers use different types of transport to reach a retail park compared with a CBD?
Answers:
- People local to Winton prefer to shop at Winton even though they regard Castlepoint as a higher quality shopping centre – mainly because of the ease of the location to their homes. People who shop at Castlepoint give it the full thumbs up as it is a new, clean, modern and stylish way to shop.
- The sphere of influence for both shopping centres is shown on page . At Castlepoint the sphere of influence is basically the immediate area (roughly at five to ten mile radius around the centre) and furthers a field in a North-Easterly direction, i.e. it is in the South-Western corner of its sphere. It stretches out to Ringwood and even as far as New Milton. It has minor influences in places beyond the shown sphere but these are only slight and I have put these results down as anomalies and I have not included them in my sphere of influence diagrams.
- People are much more willing to travel to Castlepoint than to Winton (i.e. a CBD) if it is not out of their way. People appear to choose Winton if they live closer to it. The sheer range of big-brand names and outlets you find at a place like Castlepoint makes it the premier choice to shop at if you are willing to travel to it.
- My results show that people do not use a retail park as frequently as a CBD simply because at a retail park such as Castlepoint people spend more on one ‘big-shop’ rather than simply using a CBD such as Winton more regularly for daily conveniences.
- People use their cars mainly to travel to retail parks such as Castlepoint. This is manly because of under-developed public transport links to the region because the council know that people will be less likely to trek home with heavy bags even on their local buses, as it is simply too inconvenient. In a CBD such as Winton people use public transport much more as they will generally carry less and therefore can accommodate it all when they return home on the bus. Walking by foot in a CBD is also much easier as there is generally less parking available to customers in these types of areas.
Conclusion:
Summary of results: I have taken into account and deduced the following key points regarding the Castlepoint shopping centre and the Winton shopping district:
- Castlepoint was under development when the surveys took place – roughly 50% was open and those stores which were are on a whole supermarkets
- Castlepoint is trying to target the younger generation of people (aged sub 40) where Winton is targeting all ages of people. Castlepoint, however, is so far not achieving this goal.
- Winton’s main reason for popularity is its location. It allows all local residents to walk to the shops or take the bus for 5-10 minutes into the shopping district. It is situated in a very handy and convenient place near large residential areas.
- Castlepoint is on the edge of a ‘Sub-CBD’ area, making it a place to shop if you are willing to go out of your way a little (this applies to everyone not living within 2-3 miles of the centre i.e. non-locals).
- Castlepoint’s sphere of influence stretches much further than Winton’s. It is a complex in which major retails have all come together at one location. It is comparable to the Gunwharf Quays ‘mall’ in Portsmouth and Southampton’s ‘Ocean village’ shopping district. As it matures it should become much more popular and extend its sphere of influence even further than at the moment. Winton’s sphere of influence is only reaching out to those locals who prefer convenience shopping and those who have always shopped there. It is comparable to pretty much any other CBD’s High Street but is much larger and longer than your average High Street.
- Winton lies near to a huge residential area Both East and West of Wimborne road and this accounts for most of the customers that visit the shops at this location. It is for this reason that the area has continued to succeed and prosper and continually encourages larger, better known businesses to setup in Wimborne road.
To conclude my investigation, I must state that after analysis I believe my hypothesis to be true and my investigation to be a valid, comprehensive one. I have plotted two spheres of influence on two separate maps of both the Castlepoint and Winton shopping centres and I can clearly see that the sphere of influence for Castlepoint is much larger than Winton’s.
Evaluation:
For my evaluation I have identified a number of questions I feel I need to answer to test the reliability and accuracy of my investigation:
- Have I collected enough data?
- Have I had any problems collecting this data?
- Describe the disadvantages of the techniques I used. Would the results have been improved if I had collected more data, different data, data at a different time or data with a different method?
- How might I improve my methods if I repeated the study?
- Do I believe my results are accurate?
- Which results support my hypothesis and which don’t?
I feel that overall I have collected enough data. The data collection process was largely during the two days I spent collecting information from our questionnaires and then collating them into tables ready for analysis. I feel that there was a large enough sample to make some accurate conclusions about. I did not experience many problems collecting the data, the only one being that people were reluctant to be interviewed for the investigation.
The techniques I used, mainly being the questionnaire, the traffic count and the pedestrian count on a whole went well I thought. The main disadvantage with the questionnaire was that the data collected was close to a supermarket (this being the only area I could find which wasn’t right outside a shop). This gave biased results. Other than that the other methods went well. I do not feel that if I had collected the data at a different time I would have improved my results much. The main problem with the timing of the surveys (around midday for both) was that many people were still at work and could not shop.
If I repeated the study I would make sure to take a more stratified sample of customers rather than just a random one to produce a better set of results. I do believe my results to be generally very accurate and to the point however and the stratified sample isn’t really a huge loss.
The ‘Travel time’, ‘Why do you shop here?’ and ‘Area of residence’ results all agree with and support my hypothesis. The other results, such as age, are fairly irrelevant to the investigation but still help to answer some of the project’s key questions.
Bibliography:
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Castlepoint Shopping Centre official website:
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Shopping Hierarchy on ‘Learnontheinternet’:
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Geography study techniques on ‘Learnontheinternet’:
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This Is Bournemouth – Facts and figures section: