SURVEY REVEALS NATION'S COMFORT SHOPPING PSYCHE
A new survey into the nation's shopping habits has found that two thirds of the country admits to comfort shopping, with book and fashion stores topping the poll as the nation's favourite type of shops.
Commissioned by top Scottish outlet village, Gretna Gateway to mark an £8 million expansion at its Dumfriesshire site, the survey found that 63.2% of respondents comfort shopped - bought goods because it cheered them up, rather than out of necessity. The trait is much more common among women with 73.9% confessing their comfort shopping tendencies, compared with 44.1% of men.
The comfort shopping characteristic is also more prevalent among the young with a massive 80% of 16-25 year olds admitting to it.
Book stores top the poll as the UK's favourite type of shop with 30% of the vote. Overall, a quarter of all respondents and a third of women love all shops with 30% of females questioned putting fashion stores at the top of the list. 4.5% of the population hate all shops.
And as long suspected by the female population, men list hi-fi and electrical stores as their runaway favourite with 38.2% of the vote. Their least favourite stores are shoe shops with just 3.2% liking these, compared to 16.4% of the women surveyed.
The Gretna Gateway survey also found that the population doesn't necessarily need to spend a lot of money to have a good shopping experience with 75% agreeing that they don't need to part with lots of cash to enjoy a shopping trip. In the North East, this figure dropped to 65%, the lowest in the UK.
Julian Dow, Marketing Manager at Gretna Gateway Outlet Village said; "Our survey offers a fascinating insight into the minds of today's shoppers and how people's opinions vary according to their age, gender and indeed where they live. It was also interesting that the survey reflected our own customer findings - people don't equate good shopping with spending lots of money. We find what appeals to Gretna Gateway shoppers is that they can enjoy great quality without breaking the bank. We have just added 21 new stores here at Gretna Gateway with names such as Marks and Spencer joining Polo Ralph Lauren, TAG Heuer and LK Bennett offering customers some great value shopping. Both this survey, and our recent impressive trading figures suggest that our new development will be extremely popular."