Who Shops There?
My survey clearly shows us that the majority of the people who were shopping there were between 29-45 years of age, 10 of the 21 people I interviewed (for graph see next page).
The next highest age group to shop there was the 45-65 year olds. They said they use the shop for convenience but different to the 29-45 age group, more tended to shop there for the better shopping environment.
Towards the lower end of the count were the under 15s, the 65+ and the 15-28 year old. Out of the three 15 year olds I questioned, 2 of them walk to the store, buy sweets and all three spend under £1, which suggests that they either pass the shop on their way home from school or live quite close by and they regularly ‘pop-in’.
When Do They Shop There?
Not really to my surprise, my survey shows me that the customers at One Stop did not shop there regularly, the only 3 people who shopped there more than once a week were the 3, 15 year olds who shopped there mainly after school. Nobody who I interviewed shopped there 3-4 times a week but the majority, 11, shopped there once a week on average, 1 person shopped there twice a week (but spends very little) and 2 shopped there only once a month. The remaining four people said they shopped there less than once a month.
The times of day that are most popular with One Stop customers appear to be evenings as 16 of the people interviewed said they shopped there at that time. In addition, weekends proved to be more popular than weekdays as 18 of the 21 people shopped there most at the weekends.
Is It Cheaper Or More Expensive Than The Supermarkets?
I have chosen to compare the prices of a few randomly selected items from One Stop with those same items at the nearest large supermarket, Sainsbury’s:
This clearly shows that the supermarkets are cheaper in nearly every item surveyed (the bread was cheaper at One Stop because it is competing with the local bakery just down the road).
How Much Do People Spend?
The survey shows that most people spend between £1 and £10 at One Stop with six spending between £1 and £5 and 11 spending between £5 and £10 on average. Three People spend under £1 on average and these three were the three under 15s who shop there after school and buy sweets. Only one person spends between £10 and £20 and nobody I interviewed spent more than £20.
What Do People Buy?
This particular query was quite varied in its response although the predictable outcomes were obvious. 17 of the 21 people bought groceries there, 12 bought bread and 12 bought milk (the answers were not mutually exclusive, i.e. there was more than one box ticked in each case).
Only five people bought sweets (schoolchildren included) and a mere two people bought magazines. 10 people bought other items that were not specified.
How Far do People travel?
Most of the One Stop customers travel between ½ and 1 mile to the store with 15 participants. Either side of this the numbers were reasonably equal as five people live under 1 mile and six live between 1-2 miles. Nobody lives more than two miles away from the store of the people that were interviewed.
How Do People Travel There?
Surprisingly, as many of the people I interviewed live less than 1 mile away, the majority travel to One Stop by car, 15 of the 21. Four people travel by bicycle and only two people walk to the store.
ANALYSIS OF FINDINGS
The survey has many interesting findings. Firstly, it is obvious that the main reason OneStop stays in business is that it is situated near to its customers and therefore is “convenient”. By this, I mean that the opportunity cost of shopping at OneStop outweighs the opportunity cost of shopping at a larger store, i.e. Sainsbury’s. This is because, although the prices are cheaper, and there is probably more of a selection at Sainsbury’s, the OneStop customers chose OneStop because it is close, therefore money is saved on fuel, it is less crowded, therefore time is saved queuing or looking for a parking space etc.
OneStop set their prices higher for two reasons. Firstly, they do not benefit from economies of scale because they buy in less quantity than large supermarkets, which do benefit from this. Secondly, local shops know that travelling the distance to a supermarket costs money (fuel) and costs time. Therefore, they can afford to increase prices, on average 30% more, because they know the opportunity cost will still be greater to shop at OneStop, for just a few items.
Furthermore, it is obvious that most of OneStops custom comes from consumers who are in need of just a few items (the majority I interviewed, 81%, spend between £1-£10) and this indicates that it is cheaper to travel the short way to OneStop than to waste time and money travelling all the way to Sainsbury’s to buy only a few items. Shopping at OneStop also prevents you from buying unwanted items because at the supermarkets they are clever at getting you to buy things you didn’t go in to buy by using witty marketing campaigns.
Another factor keeping OneStop in business is the amount of elderly customers it gets (80% over 45) and many elderly people prefer the quieter atmosphere of a smaller shop. Also, many people do not drive and so walking to the shop is far more convenient than to find other means of transport.
To conclude, I feel my prediction was correct. The reason that OneStop stays open is to do with supply and demand. There is steady demand for OneStop to stay open because it is convenient. Corner shops have created a niche market because they offer a range of goods, locally and at a convenience for not too extortionate prices and the opportunity cost for shopping at OneStop is higher than that of shopping at a large supermarket even thought the prices are cheaper there..
EVALUATION
My investigation went well and was carried out relatively successfully. My results were accurate because I specifically made sure that I did only three people each weekday, although they may not give the full picture of all the OneStop customers. Also, the time of the day that I did my assessment was always in the evening, this could have affected my results because a certain “type” of customer might shop there in the evenings, making my investigation unfair.
I was also limited as to analysing “corner shops” as I only studied one in the whole of Britain, which could have been an anomaly. If I were to investigate further I would take more samples and vary the times I took my information. I could also study another corner shop to compare and re-inforce my results.
