Retail Centres Investigation

Analysis and Interpretation:

The bar graph illustrates why people visit a particular shopping area. In Queens Avenue 93% said that they shopped there because it was convenient and only 17% said that they shopped there because of the price. No one commented on anything else such as quality, variety or accessibility. This was probably because many were local people buying convenience goods, therefore convenience is a large factor in Queens Avenue. Also its sphere of influence is very local due to the low order shops and services. Whippendell Road has a much wider spectrum of reasons for why people were shopping there. 57% were shopping there because of convenience, 9% because of variety and 5% were shopping there because of quality. When compared to Queens Avenue there is a slight difference. In Queens Avenue no one selected variety or quality as a reason. This was because they were shopping in low order shops for things like newspapers and fruit where variety isn't a huge factor. This shows that people in Whippendell Road were shopping for slightly higher order goods, suggesting that they came from further away to shop. As only 57% said they were shopping there for convenience compared to 93% in Queens Avenue it hints that they have travelled from further away, hence the inconvenience, therefore showing that Whippendell Road has a slightly larger sphere of influence. In the Harlequin Centre even less said that they were shopping for convenience, suggesting that people were travelling from further away to shop there, indicating a larger sphere of influence. 21% said they were shopping because of variety, this is higher than any of the others and shows us that the range of threshold changes when there are high order goods and services available, which you find in the Harlequin. This helps explain the larger sphere of influence that the Harlequin has, as people travel further for higher order goods as the range of threshold for a good changes as the order of the good gets higher.

The pie charts display how people have travelled to the shopping area. This is very useful as an indicator of how large the spheres of influences are. The different transports used often indicate how far they have travelled. If they have walked they usually live locally, if they have travelled by train they live a reasonable distance away, etc. The greater the range of transports used shows that the sphere of influence is large and the shopping centre attracts people from far away and therefore they use a wide variety of different transports to get to the shopping area.

In Queens Avenue 2/3's walked and 1/3 travelled by car. This indicates a small sphere of influence where many people live locally and only travel to the area to buy low order, convenience goods. In Whippendell Road just less than 55% walked, 11% travelled by bus and 33% used a car. This slightly wider range of transports indicates how Whippendell Road has a slightly larger sphere of influence than Queens Avenue.

The Harlequin Centre has a very wide range of transports and every available option was used. This shows that people have travelled from a reasonable distance to get there and therefore had to use various different modes of transport, such as train, bus and cycle. This indicates that the sphere of influence for the Harlequin Centre is large, and can be confirmed by looking at the sphere of influence maps.

I used divided bar graphs to show how often people visited the shopping area. The larger the shopping centre is, the more high order goods and services there are likely to be. As people travel less often for higher order goods, there is more of a chance that they live further away, therefore don't make the trip that often. This indicates that the sphere of influence is larger for higher order shopping centres. In both Queens Avenue and Whippendell Road most visited the area daily or several times a week. This was because they lived locally and were only buying convenience goods. In the Harlequin Centre few visited daily, and those that did were buying lunch. Most travelled weekly suggesting a wider sphere of influence. This is because if you live further away you are less likely to visit the shopping area daily and are more likely to visit it weekly due to the distance you have to travel. Also, people are more prepared to travel further to visit higher order shopping centres as they usually only make the visit occasionally. This is why the Harlequin Centre has a wider sphere of influence.

All these suggestions can be verified by looking at the sphere of influence plotted on the maps. This shows that Whippendell Road and Queens Avenue both have very small, local spheres of influences where the shoppers all live in the area. This explains why many shop there for convenience as it is near. It also explains why many walk and use very little other modes of transport, as they live locally. The Harlequin Centre's sphere of influence confirms my suggestion that the wider the variety of transports used, the larger the sphere of influence will be. The pie chart displayed all of the different types of transport and the map indicates that the Harlequin had a large sphere of influence with some people travelling from Harrow and Meriden.

The Harlequin Centre has a very large sphere of influence. This is because of the goods and services the Harlequin Centre sells. They are high order and have a large range of threshold, attracting people from far away. This also explains why the sphere of influence is considerably larger when compared to that of Whippendell Road and Queens Avenue, as these shopping areas only sell low and middle order goods and services with very small range of thresholds. The leaflet on the next page illustrates the shops that are in the Harlequin Centre and confirms how high order they are and why people travel so far to visit the Harlequin Centre.

The sphere of influence maps also confirm my suggestions that I extracted from the divided bar graphs. In Whippendell Road and Queens Avenue the largest percentage visited the area daily or several times a week. This was because they were living locally and it was convenient, the smaller map confirms this. In the Harlequin centre I suggested that if they were visiting weekly they lived further away, thus giving a larger sphere of influence. The larger map also confirms this suggestion.

The majority of people from Whippendell Road and Queens Avenue were shopping for goods like newspapers, milk and vegetables. These are all convenience goods and usually have a small range of threshold. This indicates to me that the sphere of influence maps should be minimal for these two areas, which they are. This shows that the spheres of influences I have drawn are accurate.

Conclusion: I can conclude from the interpretation and analysis of the data I have collected that different shopping centres in Watford have different spheres of influences. This is largely because of the position of the shopping area in the shopping hierarchy and the order of the goods that they sell. Taking into account the principle of least effort and the range of a good and how this affects the distance people travel to purchase a good I have obtained reasons for why the spheres of influences change. The higher up in the shopping hierarchy the shopping centre is the larger the sphere of influence will be. This is because people are willing to travel further to purchase high order goods which most buy very infrequently. This is why the Harlequin Centre has a large sphere of influence. The lower down the shopping centre is the smaller the sphere of influence is. This is because consumers choose the shortest journey to buy goods and services if they are relatively low order. This is why many lived locally to shopping centres like Queens Avenue and Whippendell Road, which are low order.

Evaluation: There were limitations when carrying out the questionnaire that could have led to biased results. There was a limit to the amount of questions we asked in our questionnaire and we had to be very selective when choosing which ones to ask. Perhaps if we had used more in depth questions we would have got clearer results. Also, when we asked people where they lived they were very general and some gave us very vague descriptions. This too led to inaccurate results and plots on the map. Our results would have been much clearer and more conclusive if our questionnaires were more detailed and the feedback from shoppers was more accurate.

There are also limitations on my results due to the restricted amount of time we had to collect our data. As our questionnaire was carried out in lesson time the main limitations were the amount of data we could collect and the time of day we collected our data. As we were collecting our data in the middle of the day and in the middle of the week we were obviously going to get a very biased result. Most people we interviewed were elderly men and women. If we had done it at a different time of day and week we would have got a much wider range of results giving us a more accurate view of the spheres of influences of the areas. Also, if we had collected more data by spending more time in the shopping areas we would have obtained more extensive results and we would be able to plot more accurate graphs and obtain more in depth conclusions.

The available map to plot the sphere of influence for the Harlequin Centre was not big enough to plot all the points, as the sphere of influence was so large. Although the points plotted do underestimate the size of the sphere of influence for the Harlequin Centre I have got a substantial idea of the sphere of influence and the size and shape of it. With a larger map I would have got a slightly clearer idea of the sphere of influence, but the current size of the map is sufficient for my study and I have successfully compared the Harlequin Centre with Whippendell Road and Queens Avenue.

Also, the conclusions that consumers choose the shortest distance to buy goods and services whatever the cost can also have limitations. Consumers may be more attracted by lower prices than by short journeys and many consumers are motivated by quality, service and ease of parking.

The principle of "a range of a good or service" also has limitations. Some trips are made by the need to purchase more than one commodity so consumers travel further to get to their nearest hypermarket rather than make several different journeys locally to get the same products.

Contents Page

Page 1: Introduction

2: Introduction continued

3: Sample of Questionnaire

4: Questionnaire continued

5: Analysis and Interpretation

6: Pie charts and Bar graph

7: Divided bar graph analysis

8: Sphere of influence map analysis and interpretation

9:Map of Harlequin Centre

10: Harlequin Centre sphere of influence map

11:Conclusion and Evaluation

12:Bibliography

Bibliography

. The Concise Oxford Dictionary Of Geography By Susan Mayhew

2. Key Geography for G.C.S.E By David Waugh

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