Survey probes regional out-shopping behaviour

News — 21 February 2012

By Chris Marchand

A new survey conducted over the past year takes a hard look at the shopping habits of Northwest residents in the face of flagging retail sales.

Patricia Area Community Endeavours (PACE) Community Development Calista Livingston says the study, commissioned jointly by PACE, the Dryden Development Corporation and the municipalities of Dryden, Machin and Sioux Lookout and completed by gck Consulting Ltd., was looking for insights in regional shopping habits, as well as attitudes and awareness around the benefits of shopping locally.

“Our main focus was to find out why and how one out-shops,” said Livingston. “On the flip side, we wanted to find out what would make a consumer stay within the region to shop. We were also interested in gaps in service.”

Livingston says PACE is hopeful some initiatives can be introduced to reverse out-shopping trends, which have been identified by small and medium sized businesses as posing a significant threat to their long-term economic viability.

Titled Measuring Retail Market Gravitation, the document can be read online at the PACE website — www.pace-cf.on.ca — under ‘Latest News’.

Among the 561 polled, a vast majority cited selection (400+) and price (300) as their primary reasons for taking their business outside of the community. Other less significant reasons (listed in order of importance) were service, travel experience, convenience, hours of operation and travel required for business.

The top five items typically purchased outside of the local area were women’s clothing, footwear, men’s wear, electronics and housing goods. Such goods were most commonly purchased by travel (88.3 %), followed by online sales (43.3 %) and lastly catalogue shopping (20.2%).

Forty-three per cent of respondents indicated they shop outside the PACE region at least once a month. Among the respondents, the survey found out-shoppers are typically younger adults, between the ages of 25 and 44 with an annual household income of greater than $75,000.

One third of respondents indicated that they would be willing to spend more money locally if improvements were made to selection, price and hours of operation — which the survey recognizes as a daunting challenge to overcome on a large scale.

Livingston says consumers seem reasonably receptive to shop-local thinking and says PACE is likely to embark on an awareness campaign on the benefits of keeping dollars within the region.

She says the consumer-based 3/50 Project is one example of how motivated consumers can target their dollars to create a positive local effect.

“Something very easy to do from a consumer standpoint would be to choose three stores or service providers that you couldn’t do without and make a committment to spend $50 per month between the three to ensure those dollars stay.”

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