Further Planning
I am also going to plan another project, which includes Cardiff City. I will go out to three shopping centres within Cardiff and carry out the same questionnaires and surveys as I did for Killay, Morriston and Swansea City centre. I would then compare the results for the two cities and see what the differences are, and see which city is higher in a shopping hierarchy.
I predict that Cardiff will be higher in the shopping hierarchy as it is the capital of Wales and so gets more funding.
This would tell me if there is a difference in the quality of shopping centres in different cities.
Here is a map of Swansea:
Collecting Data
My group went to Killay, Morriston, and Swansea City Centre to record primary evidence to see if there is a shopping hierarchy in Swansea on the 14th of May. We went to Killay first, at approximately 9:45 am. The weather was cloudy and dry. We then visited Morriston at around 11:00 am. The weather was still cloudy and dry. Finally we visited Swansea City Centre at around 12:45 pm. The weather was hot and sunny. I have recorded what time we went to each location and the weather, as these factors may determine how many people were at each location. i.e. There would be less people at a location first thing in the morning while it’s raining it’s raining, than at midday when it is hot and sunny.
Our plan was to ask five shoppers, ten questions that we had already decided on, and to record the answers. We decided to ask a wide range of ages of people and also to ask both males and females. This is so that the results are fair and represent all the people in that location. We also decided to do a street appearance survey, pedestrian count, and a land use survey. This information will help us to discover if there is a shopping hierarchy in Swansea.
These are the ten questions which we asked people at each location. The answers were multiple-choice. This was to make it easier for people to answer and so that we could easily compare the replies.
Figure 1.
We also made two visual observations. Gender (male/female)
And age (0-16 17-25 26-60 60+).
Here are the results from the questionnaire. I have put them into graphs so that it is easier to compare them.
Analysis of figure 2.
Figure 2 shows that only 22% of the shoppers from the C.B.D. visited daily. This is much lower than both Killay (38%) and Morriston (44%). This shows that people visit Morriston and Killay very often. This is because they live close by (figure 6) and are mainly buying convenience goods (figure 7) e.g. daily bread. Whereas people visit the C.B.D. less often because they are buying more comparison goods and don’t need to go in as often. This would put the C.B.D. further up the shopping hierarchy than the others because it is used for bigger shops less often.
Analysis of figure 3
Figure 3 shows that lots of people catch the bus into the C.B.D. This is because the bus station is in the City Centre, so there are lots of buses going there, and because there aren’t many free places to park. Whereas, very few people catch the bus to get to Killay. This is because most of the shoppers live locally or stop while passing in their cars. This puts Killay lower down in the hierarchy because people don’t get on a bus just to visit that shopping centre.
Analysis of figure 4
Figure 4 shows that a large percentage of people travel to Killay in less than ten minutes and that no one travels for over an hour to get there. This is because the quality and range of shops is not worth travelling a long way for. Whereas over 60% of the shoppers in the C.B.D. took over half an hour to get there. This shows that people are willing to travel further to get there. This again puts the C.B.D. at the top of the hierarchy.
Analysis of figure 5
Figure 5 shows that the largest percentage of shoppers in Killay, intend on staying for under 10 minutes. This shows that there is little to buy and do at Killay. This would place it at the bottom of the hierarchy. Whereas in the C.B.D. the largest percentage of people, intend on staying for over 1 hour. This shows that there are lot of things to do/shops to visit so people stay for longer.
A graph to show the reasons for people shopping in different centres
Figure 6
This graph shows that people go to different shopping centres for different reasons. Over 50% of the people shopping at Killay and Morriston went there because it was ‘near to home’. While only 16% of the shoppers in the C.B.D. went there for this reason. The main reason why people said they were shopping in the C.B.D. was because there was a ‘good choice of shops’. This also fits in with my prediction. People go shopping in town not because it is convenient, but because the choice of shops is good. This is another reason to say there is a shopping hierarchy and that the C.B.D. is at the top of it.
A graph to show the types of goods bought at each location
Figure 7
This graph shows that 96% of the shoppers in Killay were shopping for convenience goods. A large percentage of shoppers at Morriston were also shopping for convenience goods, but still not as many as at Killay. Only 30% of the shoppers in the C.B.D. were buying convenience goods. This again proves my prediction correct as there are more comparison goods being bought in the C.B.D. This shows that more expensive items are being bought and places it at the top of the hierarchy.
Pie charts to show what services shoppers are using
Figure 8
These pie charts show that most people in Killay are using personal services. E.g. hairdressers. They also show that shoppers in Morriston are mainly using professional services. e.g. Banks. They also show that the shoppers in the C.B.D are not using services very often. This might be because the shoppers don’t want to squander their time in town getting their hair cut or visiting the bank.
After conducting our questionnaire we carried out a land use survey. This is a survey, which shows all the different types of shops in that location. This would show us the different range of shops in that location. It would show us which types of goods are being sold there i.e. comparison goods. We conducted this by starting at one end of the street and working our way down recording which types of shops we pass in our table. The results are shown in figure 9.
Figure 9
This table clearly shows that Swansea city centre has a wider range of shops than the other two shopping centres. It has 469 shops in total compared to 139 at Morriston and 49 at Killay. This table confirms my prediction that there is a wider range of shops in Swansea City Centre than in the other shopping centres. It also has a lot of comparison goods stores. From this information I would say that there is a shopping hierarchy within Swansea. This is not enough evidence to fully support that theory though, so I will now look at the pedestrian count.
We carried out the pedestrian count at each location. Two people from our group counted how many people walked past them in a two-minute period. We did not include small children and babies and, if one person walked past more than once we only counted it once. We recorded the number of people using a tally. The information gained from the pedestrian count would tell us how busy each centre was and this would give us more information on where that centre is in the shopping hierarchy.
Pedestrian count
Figure 10
Figure 10 shows that there are most people shopping in Swansea City Centre, with 203 recorded in two minutes. Morriston has the second largest number of people shopping there followed by Killay with the least number of people. This helps my aim as it shows that Swansea City Centre is the busiest centre. Although, the time that we visited these locations could have had a big effect on the results.
This is a photo of Swansea City Centre, showing how busy it is.
Evaluation
My original aim was to see if there is a shopping hierarchy within Swansea. I have concluded from my evidence that there is a shopping hierarchy within Swansea. Swansea City Centre is at the top of the hierarchy with the best range of shops and is the busiest centre. Morriston is second in the hierarchy and Killay is at the bottom. This follows my prediction. This diagram illustrates this.
C.B.D Shopping hierarchy triangle
Morriston
Killay
I am pleased that my investigation ‘went smoothly’. The accuracy of my results was good, and they all followed the same common trend. I am pleased with my graphs, as they are easy to read off and show the evidence clearly. e.g. figure 6 shows what I would hope for it to show (follows my prediction) and is easy to interpret.
The tables, which we prepared before the surveys, made recording the evidence very fast and easy.
If I could do the investigation again I would change the times we went to each location. As we went to Killay early in the morning it may have affected our results. i.e. less people, or more people of certain age group. I would go out on three separate days and aim to carry out questionnaires and surveys at the same time for each location.
Overall I think that the investigation was a success as I have proved that there is a shopping hierarchy within Swansea.
Paul Ferguson
