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SUMMARY OF RESULTS

The survey was undertaken on behalf of a Home Office Committee, charged with making revisions to shop closing legislation. Its object was to ascertain the reactions of the general public to certain general shop closing problems. The inquiry began by collecting facts on shopping commitments and habits; with these facts in mind opinions on shop closing hours were considered. A special sample of holiday makers and landladies was interviewed on shopping in holiday resorts.

Who Shops?

The survey disclosed that all sections of the community did some form of shopping. In particular it revealed that 95% of men undertook some type of shopping or other. It was thus necessary in any analysis of shopping problems, not only to take account of the needs of women shopping, but also seriously to consider the man’s point of view.

The highest proportions of persons who did no shopping were found among old people and in the lowest economic group. Nearly half the working women in the sample were “main household shoppers”, that is to say, they were mainly responsible for carrying out the normal day to day shopping of their households, and had to perform this duty in addition to their work. The majority of men were ‘personal shoppers’; they only bought goods to meet their own needs and were not so concerned in shopping on behalf of other people as well.

What Centres are Used?

Not all types of shopping centre are available in every locality. For those with particular centres available 80% use local or main shopping centres, while 60% of large town dwellers go to their central shopping centres. Most shoppers pay more than one visit a week to local or main shopping centres, and less than one visit a week either to their central shopping centres if they are dwellers in large towns or if they are not, to an additional shopping centre which may be some distance away in a neighbouring town.

Time from home to Shopping Centres

Half of the local shopping centres are within 7 minutes travelling time of shoppers' homes, half the main shopping centres are within 18 minutes, half the central shopping centres within 24 minutes and half the additional centres within 57 minutes. The data did not confirm the view that rural areas are as well provided with shopping facilities as urban areas. Thus the median travelling time to a main shopping centre in an urban area is only 13 mins, whereas the median travelling time to a main shopping centre in a rural area is 22 mins.

Use of Shops

Visits to shops stocking different commodities vary according to the type of shoppers. “Main Shoppers” are interested in the full range of commodities, personal shoppers primarily in books and clothing. A higher proportion of shoppers in the upper economic groups visit furniture shops than do shoppers in the lower economic groups. The most frequent number of calls by shoppers in general are paid to food shops.

Time of Call

Food purchases are mainly undertaken in the morning, other purchase in the afternoon between 2-5 P.m. However, a group of workers do make purchases late in the afternoon between 5- 6 p.m. Only a small group of persons go in for regular lunch hour shopping.

Awareness of shop closing legislation

57% of all shoppers knew that there were Acts of Parliament affecting the closing hour for shops. Among the workers, many of whom were affected by shop closing problems, the percentage of awareness was somewhat higher.

Shop Closing times and their convenience

At the time of the survey most shops shut around 6 p.m. Existing closing hours suited about 75% of shoppers, but left another 20% inconvenienced. At least a third of working shoppers found existing closing hours inconvenient. This was not surprising in view of the fact that many workers finished their work shortly before or even after most shops had shut.

Attitude to Evening Closing

About 60% of shoppers favoured a standard closing time for all shops in the evenings on weekdays. Strongest opposition to a standard evening closing hour was found among the youngest age group and among workers not in the distributive trade. 33% of these groups opposed standard evening closing. 75% of shoppers would be satisfied by 6 p.m. closing as against 95% who would be satisfied by 7 p.m. closing. A special analysis was made of shoppers who wanted a closing hour after 6.15 p.m. The group had considerable shopping responsibilities, including a high proportion of workers, - thus of workers doing some shopping 59% of factory workers, 46% of miners, 46% of building and of clerical workers wanted a closing hour after 6.15 p.m. Moreover 80% of working women wanted a closing hour after 6.15 p.m. This indicates that late shopping facilities are a serious matter to the working woman, and that shopping opportunities may be an important factor in a woman’s attitude towards employment.

Attitude to Special Late Closing

40% of shoppers do not want any late closing nights at all. The late closing nights most in demand are Saturday and Friday evenings, particularly in industrial areas. Informants wanted special late closing times to be about one hour later than ordinary closing times. A special late closing time around 7 p.m. would satisfy 75% of shoppers, a closing hour around 8 p.m. would satisfy over 95%.

Half-Day Closing

Shoppers held very clear cut views on half closing. Over 40% favour half-day closing on Wednesday and another 18% half- day closing on a Thursday. Support for Saturday half-day closing was very low except among sistributive workers where it is 23%. 50% of shoppers said Saturday would be an inconvenient day for half-day closing and 23% said the same of Friday. Most workers except distributive workers had exceptionally strong feeling on the inconvenience of Saturday half-day closing.

Exemptions

All shoppers were asked their views on the exemption of different commodities from shop closing legislation. More than half the shoppers wanted to be able to buy medicines, newly cooked provisions and tobacco in shops after normal closing hours, 44% wanted a similar exemption for sweets; there was considerably less demand for ice-cream, mineral water and newspapers. Exemptions were more popular with the younger than the older age groups. It was probable that support for exemptions in licensed premises, though considerable, was weaker - 27% wanted the exemption of sweets and 43% the exemption of tobacco. Support for exemption in places of entertainment was high- around 60% for sweets, tobacco and ice-cream, and was doubtless influenced by the high proportions visiting places of entertainment.

Xmas Closing

There was evidence of strong support for later closing over Xmas week. 63% of shoppers would be inconvenienced if normal evening closing remained in force. This feeling was shared by housewives and workers but not by distributive workers. A closing time around 8 p.m. would satisfy 70% of late shoppers and one around 9 p.m. over 90% of late shoppers.

Holiday Shopping

Landladies in holiday resorts were active shoppers for a wide range of commodities. Holiday makers, however were little concerned with household shopping and except for some food purchases were mainly interested in buying exempted commodities. Landladies were more directly concerned with shop closing problems than holiday makers, as landladies did a considerable amount of afternoon shopping, whereas holiday makers performed most of their shopping in the morning.

Further a large proportion of holidaymakers arrived in resorts after 4 p.m. Since they may have had some week-end household shopping to complete, shop closing hours may have been a matter of some interest to them on the day.

Aids to Shopping

Information on the use or potential use of delivery services, telephone ordering and mail order services may suggest how far it will be possible for the public to restrict the number of its calls to shops and so lessen the [Text missing]. The evidence on this survey was that telephone ordering is not yet an important factor in public shopping habits. Only 8% of shoppers used the ‘phone for ordering some commodity or other and these were found primarily in the upper economic groups. A change could reasonably be expected as the telephone service was expanded. 21% of shoppers (having no ‘phone at the moment) said they would use a phone for ordering goods if they had one. 39% of shoppers use some delivery service for food, for others the figure is considerably lower. But at least 34% of shoppers are prepared to use delivery services as they become available. Only 12% of shoppers use any mail order service. Use of a mail order service is most marked for clothes and generally in a rural area.

General Conclusion

The shop closing problem is most serious for the working shopper. In general the full-time housewife is satisfied with existing closing hours. Working shoppers and particularly working women shoppers, however, are not so satisfied with closing hours and suffer inconvenience under existing conditions. They need later closing hours or special time off.