Factors affectting shopping patterns and behaviour in Bracknell

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Introduction

I chose to carry out this study because I wanted to see what factors affect shopping patterns and behaviour. I also wanted to see what factors influenced people’s choice of shopping, and how far out of their way they would go to follow these factors. I chose the optional question of ‘what importance does the quality of the shopping environment have for attracting shoppers’, for the reason that the shopping environment is a hugely contributing factor to the reason that shoppers choose a certain area to shop in. examples of these factors would be attractiveness, security, catering, etc . These would all add up to increase the shops overall attractiveness, and therefore increase its sphere of influence.

Bracknell is within central Berkshire, in the south- east of Britain. Bracknell is located approximately 50km west of London, and is situated in the M4 corridor. Because of this, it is an important communication link to London. Also, Bracknell is in the ‘silicon strip’, an area of high computer business and offices. This brings in most of the town’s GNP. Bracknell was quite a small town, a quite and local place until 1949 when it became a new town. This now became a planned urban community, designed for self-efficiency, and paved the way for it to become a central business district. Bracknell’s population is 110,000, with the neighbourhood principle to thank for that, and is a bustling, thriving town that attracts shoppers from all around. Near to Bracknell, we also have reading and Twyford, which is where I live.

                     

                     

Our study sites were situated in the centre of Bracknell, at the Bracknell town centre and the peel centre. The study was carried out at these two sites mainly because they were dissimilar. The peel centre was a large parade with many high order shops in a line, such as MFI and focus. There was also an entertainment centre, which had a cinema, restaurants, bowling, etc, to entertain the crowds brought to shop. The whole thing was 15,000 sqm and was built in the 90’s. It has now created redevelopment plans to include new shops. However, Bracknell town centre was a high street, with a mall inside it.  This was made up mostly of small shops, with a few larger ones, but not to the extent of the peel centre. Also, the Bracknell centre is surrounded by a road called the ring, and is strictly pedestrianised inside. It didn’t have any entertainment facilities, but it did have fast food restaurants, etc. As you can see, there was a contrast between the shopping areas that would prove interesting in our results and the outcome of the shopping patterns, from different factors. Also, the shopping centres were totally independent, but were close together, so we could get there easily, but also see that distance wasn’t a reason on why people chose one shopping area over another.

My local study site for this shopping study was located close to my house, in the small village of Twyford. Twyford is approximately 5 miles north-east of reading, and is connected to reading and Bracknell via train. Twyford is quiet, and ‘everyone knows everyone’, as the phrase goes.

                   

A local study site was used in my study because it gave a good comparison between the other two sites. This shopping area is extremely small, and is only a local shop on a parade of 2 other active shops. This will give completely different results which I can compare with results from the peel centre, and Bracknell town centre. It also gives me a wider range of data, which will help my answering of the main aim. Bracknell town centre and the peel centre both sell comparison goods as well as convenience goods, which attract shoppers from a large area, a ‘catchment area’. My local study site (Twyford convenience store) only sells a limited amount of convenience goods, which means that its catchment area will be very small, as there is no reason for shoppers from around Britain to visit it! Also, Twyford has no means of attracting tourists with entertainment or hotels. The only thing in Twyford that would attract people would be a waitrose food store, as this also sells a limited range of comparison goods. I chose my local site based on how it was such a small scale shop and how it was on its own. The area around it is a housing estate, meaning that people go to TCS (Twyford convenience store) for small loads of everyday items, like if they ran out of juice.

There are quite a few sorts of shopping patterns resulting from a number of factors, but there are some main ones that are mostly consistent. These would be:

  1. The bigger the shop, and the bigger the variety of what it sells, the bigger its catchment area will be.
  2. The smaller the shop, and its merchandise variety, then the smaller its catchment area will be.
  3. The better the facilities of the shopping area, then the bigger its catchment area will be, and the more potential customers it will have.
  4. The better the accessibility of the shopping area, then the more potential customers it will get.
  5. The bigger the place (town, city) it’s situated in, then the more potential customers it will get.

There are also many different factors that contribute to whether a shopping area will attract many customers, or whether it will get very little attention. These are all important factors that a shopping area has to consider. These are:                                                      

  • Attractiveness of shopping environment                convenience goods
  • Location                                                         order goods that are cheap, can be brought
  • Variety of shops                                            locally and frequently, and that are consumed
  • Advertising                                                    
  • Security
  • Time of day/week it’s open
  • Accessibility                                                           comparison goods
  • Car park                                                      high order goods that are expensive, last a long
  • Facilities                                                      time, are bought infrequently. We like to com
  • Disabled access
  • Choice
  • Prices
  • Size of shopping area
  • Quality of shops

Shopping patterns can also be affected by the age of the customer. If it’s pension day, dole day or during a school day, the people that fit that particular category won’t be available for shopping. Shopping can be very much about the environment as it is about the goods, in some cases even more so, e.g. a parent wants to keep their child busy, so goes to a centre with entertainment facilities.

Also, shops and shopping areas can all be fit into a shopping hierarchy chart- this illustrates an order which shops/shopping areas can be put into, and works in an ascending order, with the high order shops at the top, and low order shops at the bottom.

Shopping hierarchy: -                                                                                                           

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Aims

The main aim is to carry out:

An assessment of the factors which affect the catchment area and popularity of shopping centres.

This aim can be divided into several smaller questions:

  1.  Do places with a greater variety of shops attract more people?
  2. Will people travel further to buy high order ...

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