Do you buy books, jewellery & gifts in Frome town centre?
By LoveFrome | Thursday, October 13, 2011, 11:51
With shopping surveys in the news I've been checking the studies undertaken recently by the District Council to 'inform' the planning process. They make interesting reading. There are 3 studies you can read about & download HERE.
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Shop Local in Frome
Table 7l on Pg 30 of Volume 2 study assesses where people in the Frome area go to buy what they call 'Specialist Items' (these are Books, CDs, Jewellery, Gifts, China, Glass) & the results are quite surprising to me. I'm wondering if that's because I would always go to the town centre for such things & not consider other options? Or perhaps because I'm not a huge buyer of jewellery or china? This is what they found for 2010;
25.1% of residents in the Frome area bought them in Frome town centre
18.1% bought them in Asda (this was the shock for me)
9.2% in Bath city centre
6.9% bought them in Sainsbury's
2.9% bought them in Trowbridge town centre
1.7% 'other' in Zone 7 (Warminster & Westbury)
1.1% in 'other places' in Zone 4 (Frome plus Ammerdown, Rode & Beckington)
1.1% in Asda (The Shires)
0.6% in Bristol
0.6% in Tesco Extra (Trowbridge)
0.5% Warminster town centre
29.8% in 'Special forms of trading (internet etc)'
Source: NEMS Survey of Households, February/March 2010. Notes: Retail centres and individual stores are listed where the total market share is 1% or greater or greater than 3% in any one zone.
The study also shows how much we spend on each category, for 'comparison goods' ie. anything other than food (which is know as 'convenience' goods). Table 7m on the following page gives some interesting figures;
Of the £7.4 million spent on these items in the Frome area, £2.4 million is spent in Frome town centre whereas £1.7 million is spent in Asda (& £700,000 in Sainsbury's). And not forgetting £2.8 million on the internet.
Does any of this surprise you too?
Quite some time ago NEF found that £1 spent with a local supplier is worth £1.76 to the local economy, and only 36 pence if it is spent out of the area. That makes £1 spent locally worth almost 400 per cent more.
See also the article on local money here.
Comments
Quite surprised about the Asda figure when you consider that China and Jewellery are in the list. Although when considering they do stock new Computer games fairly cheaply, cds and dvds, also TVs, ipods, mp3 players, head phones and even some some small stereos and radios then that would probably make up the statistics. Also its pretty easy to pick up a random dvd or cd as a present and just bung it in the trolley whilst doing the weekly/monthly shop. Re sainsbury's its too big, impossible to find stuff and the car park is too small and annoying so thats probably why their stats are down compared to asda.
It is really good to know that the frome town centre stats are the highest. We have decided to buy all our christmas presents in Frome town centre this year and I would suggest that evryone does the same. If you want to support your town shop local and by the way local doesnt mean asda or sainsbury's but I an understand why people do buy stuff from there.
O and while I'm at it, isnt the little butchers in the new Westway Coop excellent? The old english sausages are to die for! The best sausages i've ever tasted, yummy indeed, go get some.
By ooojamaflip at 13:13 on 28/11/11
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