QUESTION 7 - 'What age group are you in?'
This is to know what age groups are attracted to the shopping centre. To know how far certain age groups would travel to come to the shopping centre by also using question 1 'Where do you live?'
I went to Edgware and Willesden to observe the environment and give the grade that I thought was suitable for the shopping centre areas. I did my surveys for each shopping area, they were - 'state of road', 'state of buildings ',' accessibility and danger sites. I had to do the same surveys for both shopping centres to be able to compare the results and find out if the hypotheses are right. I did the surveys along the Edgware high street and Willesden high street, I tried to make them equal distances from each other on the high street and the distances varied from the length of the high street for the both of them.
STATE OF ROADS
I chose this to help with my hypothesis to see if the quality of the environment gets poorer as you move away from the centre of the shopping area.
STATE OF BUILDINGS
I chose this to help with my hypothesis, which is also to see if the quality of the environment gets poorer as you move away from the centre of the shopping area.
ACCESSIBILITY
I chose this survey to help me answer my key question, which is 'What factors influence shoppers to shop at Edgware and Willesden.'
DANGER SITES
This will help me with my hypothesis of the quality of environment gets poorer as you move away from the shopping centre.
ANALYSIS
QUESTIONNAIRE
Q. 1 Where do you live?
In Edgware my results that were shown by pie graphs most people came from Edgware 32%, then 16% from Hendon, 12% from Mill hill, 12% from Burnt oak, 10% from Collindale, 6% from Golders green, 2% from Stanmore, 2% from Kingsbury, 2% from Finchley, 2% from Wood green, 2% from Wealdstone and 2% from Muswell. While Willesden's results was Willesden 62%, Harlesden 16%, Cricklewood 10%, Kilburn 6%, and 6% from Dollis hill. Most people came from Edgware because the shopping centre is right next to them. The second largest percentage of shoppers came from Hendon, this is not supposed to be because there are other places closer to the shopping centre like Burnt oak, Collindale and Mill hill. This may be because of the range of transport links from i.e. train, bus and it is not so far so bicycles could be used. Most customers came from Willesden, which is typical, because they are near the shopping centre. The second largest percentage of customers came from Harlesden because the Harlesden shopping centre is towards the south of the area. So the people in the north of Harlesden go to the Willesden shopping centre which is closer to them. The shoppers only came from a small variety of places (i.e. 5 places). This because most people came because it was 'close to home' (Question 4 'why do you shop here'). If this had 'variety of shops' or ' pleasant shopping area' there would have been a lot more places that shoppers would have come from. Like Edgware where shoppers came from 12 areas. This is because the shoppers came for a large variety of reasons although 'close to home' was the highest, others like 'variety of shops', 'cheap prices' and 'pleasant shopping area' were not far behind.
The results of this question tells us that shoppers came from a larger variety of places to come to Edgware shopping centre than to Willesden shopping centre.
Q. 2 How did you get here?
In Edgware my results were shown using pie graphs, most people travelled by train (32%), 22% by bus, 18% walked, 12% rode bicycles, 10% drove cars, 6% with a taxi and none were other. These results are different from those of Willesden shopping centre. In Willesden most people travelled by walking (50%), 20% by bus, 16% by train, 12% cycled, another 2% travelled by car and none were other. 2 major roads (M1 and Edgware) and several main roads access Edgware. I would expect it to attract a large population of shoppers in cars. My land use maps shows that the majority of units on the high street and the shopping centre are high order shops (69 out of 120) with 40 shoppers service outlets and only 11 low order shops. I would therefore expect it to attract shoppers from far away who would use cars. My large sphere of influence shows that Edgware is a grade 2 shopping centre. This should also encourage more people to come from long distances. My map shows that Edgware is crossed by 6 bus routes and 14 other routes terminate at its bus garage, it also has a train station served by northern line which is as frequent as every 10 minutes.
In comparison Willesden does not have any major roads but several main roads. It has bus routes that pass through it (5 bus routes) while 4 bus routes terminate at its bus garage. It also has the jubilee line, which passes through it at approximately every 5 minutes. This is why most shoppers travel by public transport, shoppers would prefer to leave their cars at home when Willesden has good bus and rail links. Willesden being a grade 3 shopping centre, this is another reason why people are less likely to bring their cars to it. It has less high order shops than that of Edgware and attracts people from a smaller area (see sphere of influence). This means people are more likely to walk or use public transport while only 2% come by car.
The results help me to investigate my key question (what factors influence people to shop at Edgware and Willesden) as transport links are a very important factor.
Q. 3 How often do you shop here?
My bar charts for this question show that most people go to Edgware once a month (30%), twice a month which was 16%, a further 12% once a week, 20% came twice a week and 22% travelled by other means of transportation.
While the result Willesden are 16% once a month, 12% twice a month, 16% once a week, 28% came twice a week and 32% for other (most of the people who chose this said they went there more than twice a week). The difference in these results can be explained in a number of ways. As my land use plan shows, Edgware has a lot of high order shops and just a few low order shops. Giving the fact that most of the goods sold by low order shops are convenience goods i.e. things that you use everyday so they would need to buy them everyday. And high order shops mostly sell luxury items which are expensive so only if you are very rich you wouldn't buy them everyday even though you don't need them everyday. This is why customers would only come once in a while like once a month or even less than that. Another reason for the results is that because a lot of the customers are attracted from a large area and would have to travel a long distance, they would not want to travel the long distance very often. Most of the customers that answered 'other' that I asked them what it were, they said that they visited the shopping centre less than once a month (like once every three to four months). I expected these results because my hypothesis stated that shoppers visit low order shopping centres more frequently than high order shopping centres and this is true according to my results.
In comparison Willesden has a lot of low order shops and few high order shops (see land use maps) being a grade 3 shopping centre. Again because low order shops sell convenience goods in which people have to buy them often, so the shoppers would come to the shopping centre often. And because there are not many high order shops people do not have to travel from far distances like Edgware to shop there. So the shoppers wouldn't mind going to the shopping centre a lot because it is a short distances from where they live to the shopping centre. Most of the customers that answered 'other' that I asked them what it were they said they visited the shopping centre more than twice a week that it was either everyday or every other day.
I expected the shoppers to visit Willesden shopping centre very often because my hypothesis was shoppers visit low order shops more often than high order shopping centres.
Q. 4 Why do you shop here?
My bar graphs for this question show that most shoppers are attracted by Edgware shopping centre being close to home (34%), 18% because of the cheap prices, a further 16% because of accessibility, 14% for variety of shops, 10% because of the pleasant shopping area and 18% said it was for other reasons.
In Willesden the results are quite different. Most shoppers are attracted by shopping centre being close to home (56%), 22% because of the accessibility, 18% because of the cheap prices, 2% for the variety of shops, 2% for other reasons and 0% for pleasant shopping area.
Edgware being a grade 2 shopping centre is well funded so it has money for the streets to be frequently cleaned and has trees and other beautification in it, to build road networks to link it to everywhere else. This is why some of the shoppers chose answers like pleasant shopping area, accessibility and variety of shops but because the shopping centre attracts so many people that the shops can afford to lower their prices. This is a reason why the customers chose cheap prices. It is also because Edgware shopping centre is quite large there are a large variety of shops in it. Most of the shoppers who chose 'close to home' lived in Edgware. The results were expected because this is typical of a grade 2 shopping centre.
Willesden on the other hand is not that well funded though the streets are cleaned but this is quite so often and the trees are not well cared for with little other beautification in it, this is why shoppers did not choose pleasant shopping area. The accessibility is good but not as good as that of Edgware. Willesden, which is a grade 3 shopping centre and is not so big it can't have a large variety of shops so the shoppers hardly chose 'variety of shops'. Because Willesden does not attract a large area (see sphere of influence) most of its shoppers come from Willesden, so this is why the percentage of people who chose 'close to home' is so large. The results here are not level because the only qualities it has according to my bar chart are 'close to home', 'accessibility' and 'cheap prices'. Therefore it doesn't have everything that a shopper would want this is why it attracts customers from a small area.
The results of this question help me answer my key question. From my results I think that variety of shops and pleasant shopping area are some of the most important factors.
Q. 5 What is the main item you wish to buy?
In Edgware my results were presented on a bar chart, most people wanted to buy food (22%), 18% wanted to buy newspapers, candy or tobacco, 18% wanted to buy books or music, clothing, shoes or jewellery were being bought by 14% of the shoppers, 10% bought furniture, 10% wanted electrical appliances and 8% wanted other things. These results are very different from those of Willesden's shopping centre.
The results were 50% of the shoppers wanted to buy food, 22% wanted to buy newspapers, candy or tobacco, 8% wanted books or music, 6% wanted clothing, shoes or jewellery, 6% wanted electrical appliances, 4% wanted to buy furniture while another 4% bought other things.
Most people bought food because most of the people came from Edgware so this is their own shopping centre they wouldn't go somewhere else to buy food. Because Edgware mainly has high order shops, only 40% were buying low order goods while 52% were buying high order goods and 8% bought other things. This shows that people mainly go to Edgware to do high order shopping. Most of the 40% that were buying low order goods were from Edgware and they visited the shopping centre frequently while most of the 52% were not from Edgware and visited the shopping centre about once or twice a month. I expected these results because I expected most of the shopping being done to be high order.
In comparison Willesden's shops are mostly low order shops, so only 24% were buying high order goods while 72% were buying low order goods and 4% bought other things. This shows that people who go to Willesden shopping centre mostly go for low order shopping. Most of the 72% were from Willesden and north of Harlesden (because they are closer to Willesden high street than they are to Harlesden high street) and they go there very frequently. Most of the people that bought high order goods were from outside Willesden and only visited the shopping centre about once a month. I expected this because my hypothesis states that shoppers visit low order shopping centres more frequently than high order shopping shops.
The results for this question help me to prove my hypothesis as the results show that people who do low order shopping do it more often than people who do high order shopping. I came up with this in conjunction with the results in question 3: How often do you shop here?
Q. 6 What do you think might improve this shopping centre?
My results of this question which were presented on a horizontal bar chart were as follows: for Edgware most people said that a larger variety of shops would improve the shopping area (24%), better parking was also (24%), 18% said pedestrianisation another 18% said improved environment standards and 16% said other things would improve the shopping centre.
And Willesden's results were most people chose improved environmental standards (48%), a further 28% were for a larger variety of shops, another 14% chose pedestrianisation, only 8% said better parking would improve the shopping centre and 2% said other things would improve the shopping centre.
The difference of the two results can be explained from different aspects of it. In Edgware most of the shoppers chose larger variety of shops. This is not supposed to be because Edgware has all kinds of stores the only missing is a department store. The same amount of people chose better parking this is also not meant to be because Edgware has an overall of 2,700 car-parking spaces both on its high street and car parks. The shoppers that chose pedestrianisation were on track because Edgware is not very pedestrian friendly. The traffic lights take quite long on stopping the cars before people can cross. It also doesn't have a footbridge to go over the major road (Edgware road) which is quite big and dangerous to cross, it only has one zebra crossing which is in front of the station, every where else you had to wait for the traffic lights. The environment didn't really need much improvement because the streets are quite clean and there are some plants around, the only things that are needed are maybe some trees for shade because the high street is quite bare. I did not expect these results because my results for Q.4 (Why do you shop here?) showed that Edgware has most of the things that would improve the shopping centre. But because not everyone thinks alike someone who chose 'pleasant shopping area' on Q.4 and 'larger variety of shops' on Q.6 might disagree with someone who chose 'variety of shops' on Q.4 and 'improved environment' on Q.6.
On the other hand most Willesden shoppers chose 'improved environment'. This is very good because my environmental survey shows that Willesden has a very poor environment so the shoppers would want the streets to be cleaner and tidier. The shoppers chose larger variety of shops because Willesden being only a grade 3 shopping centre does not have a large variety of shops. Willesden is better pedestrianised than Edgware but it is still not very good there are only a few zebra crossings and the traffic lights take very long on letting the pedestrians cross. This is why it has a lower percentage than that of Edgware who want it to be more accessible. Very few people chose better parking because although the parking is not very good because they get tickets for parking on the high road and there are not many car parks around it. Still not a lot of people chose it because they are not coming from far away so they do not need their cars to travel the short distance.
The results of this question help me to investigate my key question 'What factors influence people to shop at Willesden and Edgware' as the results show that some of the things the shopping centre lack, if they had these things they would have a lot more costumers.
Q. 7 What age group are you in?
ENVIRONMENTAL SURVEY
State of road
In Edgware the results were fair in location 1, good in location 2, good in location 3, fair in location 4 and also fair in location 5. These results are very similar to those of Willesden.
In Willesden they were fair in location 1, good in location 2, good in location 3, fair in location 4 and fair in location 5 as well.
The results were like this in Edgware because the centre of the shopping area is always the most cared for. So it is good around the middle and not so good on the outskirts of the shopping area.
In comparison Willesden's results are very similar with those of Edgware because the same hypothesis is proved right, as you move away from the centre of the shopping area the quality of environment gets poorer.
These results help me investigate my hypothesis stated above.
State of building
Edgware's results were in general quite good. It was good in location 1, fair in location 2, good in location 3, good in location 4 and good in location 5.
In Willesden the location 1 had bad buildings, location 2 also had bad buildings, fair buildings on location 3, location 4 was fair and location 5 was bad (the buildings were dirty).
Willesden's results were typical of a high street because the ends are not as good as the middle. Location 5 was bad because the buildings had not been renovated in a long time, there is also a pub nearby that makes the area smell and there are posters on the building. In location 1 and 2 the buildings were just old and unkempt, although in location 3 and 4 the buildings were old it was a bit tidier.
In comparison Edgware's results were not typical because generally all the locations were good. Location 2 was fair because the building was a bit untidy but apart from that all the other locations were good. I did not expect these results because my hypothesis said that the quality of environment gets poorer as you move away from the centre of the shopping area.
These results would help me investigate my hypothesis 1. And this was proved to be right even though my results on Edgware were not exactly normal but if location 1 and 5 had been fair then it would have been correct.
Accessibility
The results for Edgware were fair in location 1, good in location 2, excellent in location 3, excellent in location 4 and in location 5.
While in willeden the results were fair in location 1, fair in location 2, bad in location 3, fair in location 4 and good in location 5.
The results are very different because Edgware has 4 main roads and the last 3 locations are near the largest main road in Edgware (Edgware road) while the rest have a few minor roads.
Willesden's results were like this because at location 5 there are two roads that lead to Harlesden and Dollis hill so the accessibility is quite good. Location 3 is bad because there are hardly any roads around it, it is in the middle of the high road and there are only other roads at locations 2, 4, 1 and 5.
The results of this survey would help me to investigate my hypothesis (the quality of environment gets poorer as you move away from the centre of the shopping area). The accessibility aspect of this has been proved wrong by my results.
Danger sites
The results for Edgware were very bad at location 1, excellent at location 2, fair at location 3, excellent at location 4 and very bad at location 5.
The results of Edgware are quite similar to that of Willesden which were excellent in location 1, bad in location 2, fair in location 3, excellent in location 4 and very bad in location 5.
Edgware have some reasons for location 1, this was because there was a demolition of a building in progress. Location 3 had a large road crossing and location 4 had a barricaded whole in the sidewalk that was being repaired.
While in Willesden location 5 was because a house was being built and location 2 was because an underground pipe was being fixed in the sidewalk.
The results of this survey help me to investigate my hypothesis 1 (the quality of environment gets poorer as you move away from the centre of the shopping area.
EVALUATION
I questioned 50 people in each shopping area this is not very reliable because if I asked a different 50 people my results would be different. I think for my results to be reliable I would have had to ask about 500 people for each shopping area.
My methods were a bit biased this is because I asked a particularly age group i.e. about 16-45yrs. This is because I was having trouble getting older people to answer my questionnaire because most of them were in some kind of hurry, and the younger ones were just playing around choosing any answer at random. This could affect my results because the old people tend to choose answers like pedestrianisation and cheap prices but since I didn't ask a lot of them then those choices might not have a big impact on the results. I picked my environmental survey locations but I didn't go to the place to see how it was first, I just put some points on the goad plan and went there to do the survey.
I decided on the limit of the study area according to the goad plan given to me by my geography teacher for Edgware and the goad plan I used for Willesden. I left some shops out in Edgware because they weren't on the goad plan… This could have had a big on my shopping hierarchies because if there was a department store where I missed out it could have been a grade 1 shopping centre. But when visiting Edgware I checked the shops and there weren't any department stores. I didn't study the spaces above the shops but this could have added or decreased importance to my shopping centres.
I asked all the questions needed to prove my key question and hypothesis because I brainstormed some questions then I picked out 7 of the most helpful ones to use. My question 'What do you think might improve this shopping centre?' had an answer 'pedestrianisation' in which the shoppers always had to ask me what it meant. My only question which did not have enough answer options was question 3 'How often do you shop here?' I should have put other options like 'everyday' because this is what a lot of people told me in both shopping centres I had to put this under 'other'. Any answer that I got and wasn't in my option I put it under 'other' unless it is a bit close to one of the options. The wordings of my questions were in no way leading because I tried to pick my words carefully.
I had to ask people their perception of the area to be able to prove my hypothesis and key question to see what factors influence shopping in the areas. The shoppers liked the area in Edgware because it was clean and tidy but shoppers were not very pleased with Willesden because it is not clean but it is a bit tidy. I also asked what could improve the shopping area. The shoppers wanted 'better parking', 'pedestrianisation' (making the area more pedestrian friendly) and also 'larger variety of shops'.
I did a pedestrian count and it was useful in proving my hypothesis of where there are more people there is more litter. I had to have done this to find out if in the places there were more litter there are more people. I didn't consider my pedestrian counts because I did them opposite where I did my environmental surveys. The location affected my results because one of my locations in Edgware was in front of the broadwalk shopping mall and also right beside the station and bus garage so this would have made that the most populated area.
I did a litter count because it was vital in proving my hypothesis (where there are more people there is more litter). I had to have done this to find out if in places where there are more people there is more litter. I used 1 regular sized shop unit (about 14 feet) and the whole pavement in front of it as the area in which I would count. I counted litter at the same locations as the pedestrian counts to be able to prove my hypothesis correctly. The location affected my results because some of them were in front of fast food restaurants like K.F.C. e.t.c.
I didn't ask other people's opinions about the environment I used my own observations. This could affect the results because other people might see the state of the environmental different from the way I do. I live in an area where the environment is quite poor so a location that might look tidy to me might look untidy to someone who lives in a clean and tidy area. I didn't check the spaces between the streetlights, the air pollution and the congestion of the roads e.t.c. This could have brought the importance to the shopping area up or down.
I did not ask for information on delivery areas to find out where people shop from the shopping centre through phone from. The only way of investigating the sphere of influence more accurately is by asking the shoppers exactly where they lived. But I couldn't do this because I wouldn't get a response because it is too personal they wouldn't want to give their address to a stranger who could possibly be a thief.
Most high order shops cluster at the centre of the shopping area this definitely influences the number of people. Who shop at the area because people get attracted to high order shops especially when there a lot of similar ones so that they can get the best price of an item that may be common to the cluster of shops.
All my surveys and questionnaires were done on Sundays between 1pm and 5pm but the weather was different sometimes because on one of the Sundays it had just rained in edgware. So there weren't so many people and this affected my results because I was doing my pedestrian count and the rain had washed most of the litter down the road, which altered my results for my litter count. This could have been avoided if I had checked the weather review so that I went on sunny days like I went for all my other surveys.
Large super stores and retail are moving out of high roads because there is simply no more space for them so they go outside the shopping centre to buy land to build their large shops in. It is having a big effect on old-fashioned "high street" because you could because you could go to a retail park and buy everything you need from food to furniture so you don't really need to go to the high street anymore apart from little things like newspapers. I think the types of shops have changed in the last 15 years because then there were no department stores you had to get everything from the high street or the city centre. I think the places I studied would have changed in 15 years to come because willesden would probably have an indoor shopping mall with chain stores and department stores it would probably be a grade 2 shopping centre. While edgware might have become part of the West End so it will have all types of shops and it would have extended on those major roads that go through it. Although developers are trying to locate entertainment and shopping in similar places this has not affected the areas that I am studying because they do not have entertainment centres near them. The environment in willesden does not attract families because there is hardly anything to do because most of the shops are low order while edgware attracts families because they could go luxury shopping and look for a nice restaurant for them to 'eat out'. This would affect my results because families would want to drive their cars because there are a lot of them so they would answer for question 6 'better parking'.
CONCLUSION
My investigation was to find out what factors influence people to shop at willesden and edgware.
My hypothesis were:
- The quality of the environment gets poorer as you move away from the centre of a shopping area.
- Where there are more pedestrians, there is more litter.
- People visit high order centres less frequently than low order centres.
Hypothesis 1
I have proved my hypothesis because almost all my environmental surveys went from bad to good then to bad again. This was due to the fact that my locations were made for location 3 to be the centre of the high street and 1 and 5 being the ends. Other factors however affect this because my 'danger sites' environmental surveys is independent because they could decide to build a building anywhere on the high street or demolish one anywhere on the high street.