GCSE Geography - An Investigation Into Shopping Patterns in Derby

Geography – An Investigation into Shopping Patterns in Derby
An Investigation into Shopping

Patterns in Derby
Dan Foy
Candidate Number Dan Foy Landau Forte College

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Contents
Contents...........................................................................................................2
Introduction......................................................................................................4
Introduction Derby.......................................................................................... .........4
Introduction to the three areas................................................... .............................5
Derby City Centre (The Central Business District)........................................................ ....5
Littleover (the Urban Shopping Parade).................................................... .......................5
Kingsway (the Retail Park)....................................................................... ........................5
Introduction to the investigation.......................................................................... .....5
My hypotheses........................................................................................... .............6
Core hypotheses:.................................................................................. ...........................6
My hypotheses:...................................................................................... ..........................6
Background theory................................................................................... ...............7
Method..............................................................................................................8
How did we collect the information?.......................................................... ..............8
Conditions on the day............................................................... ..............................8
Results..............................................................................................................9
Core Hypotheses......................................................................... ...........................9
Theory 1: The CBD will have the largest sphere of influence..........................................9
Theory 2: Most people in Littleover buy low order or convenience goods compared to
Kingsway and the city centre............................................................................ ..............10
Theory 3: People visit Kingsway least often of the three sites.......................................11
Theory 4: Most people use credit cards to pay for goods at Kingsway..........................12
Theory 5: Walking is the preferred form of transport at Littleover..................................13
My Hypotheses........................................................................... ..........................14
Theory 1: Most people who have visited the Central Business District (CBD) have
arrived via public transport............................................................................................ ..14
Theory 2: There are more women shoppers on weekdays than male shoppers...........15
Theory 3: The majority of shoppers at Littleover will be over 60....................................16
Other results........................................................................... ..............................17
Pedestrian Count.................................................................................................. ..........17
Environmental Survey.................................................................................................... .17
Article on women shoppers................................................................... .........................18
Map of Care Homes in Littleover.............................................................. .............18
Conclusions...................................................................................................19
Core hypotheses:................................................................................... ...............19

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The city centre will have the largest sphere of influence................................................ .19
Most people in Littleover buy low order or convenience goods compared to Kingsway
and the city centre.................................................................................... ......................19
People visit Kingsway least often of the three sites........................................ ................19
Most people use credit cards to pay for goods at Kingsway.............................. .............20
Walking is the preferred form of transport at Littleover................................ ...................20
My hypotheses......................................................................................... .............20
Most people who have visited the Central Business District (CBD) have arrived via
public transport................................................................................................ ...............20
There are more women shoppers on weekdays than male shoppers............................21
The majority of shoppers at Littleover will be over 60.......................................... ...........21
Evaluation.......................................................................................................22
My project................................................................................ .............................22

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Intr oduction
Introduction Derby
Derby is a city in the east midlands of England. It is the 18 th largest city in England,
having been made a city in 1977 by Queen Elizabeth II, to mark the 25th anniversary
of her ascension to the throne.
Map of Derby courtesy of Multimap.com
Map of Derby and surrounding cities courtesy of Multimap.com

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Kingsway
Central
business
district
Littleover
Close-up of Derby courtesy of Google Maps
Introduction to the three areas
Derby City Centre (The Central Business District)

The CBD is the main centre for shopping within Derby, where most of the big-name
shops can be found.
The CBD is often the area of a city that has the largest sphere of influence, as it
generally contain the most shops, choice, and competitive prices.
Littleover (the Urban Shopping Parade)

Littleover is a suburban district that has its own suburban shopping promenade.
These promenades are commonplace in large suburban areas and usually provide
high-order goods to people living nearby.
Littleover contains typical shops such as a fast-food outlet, mini-supermarket, pet
store, and barbers.
Kingsway (the Retail Park)

Kingsway is a development a little outside of the main city, in the Redevelopment
Sector. It contains both an industrial estate and a retail park.
The retail section of Kingsway contains mostly large department stores for low-order
goods such as furniture (SCS), hardware and materials (B&Q), and electrical
equipment (Comet, Currys). There is also a supermarket (Sainsbury’s) and petrol
station, which provide high-order goods to the residents of nearby Mackworth.
Introduction to the investigation

For their GCSE Geography coursework at Landau Forte College, students are
required to investigate shopping patterns in three separate areas around Derby. The
areas were investigated were:

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• The Central Business District (CBD);

• A retail centre;
• A suburban shopping parade.
My hypotheses
For this investigation, I am required to investigate five core hypotheses and also a
few of my own.
Core hypotheses:
1. The city centre will have the largest sphere of influence;

2. Most people in Littleover buy low order or convenience goods compared to
Kingsway and the city centre;
3. People visit Kingsway least often of the three sites;
4. Most people use credit cards to pay for goods at Kingsway;
5. Walking is the preferred form of transport at Littleover.
My hypotheses:
1. Most people who have visited the Central Business District (CBD) have arrived
via public transport;
2. There are more women shoppers on weekdays than male shoppers;
3. The majority of shoppers at Littleover will be over 60.

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Background theory
The above diagram (from ‘The Wider World’ by David Waugh) shows general
observations of an urban shopping hierarchy.

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Method
How did we collect the information?
We collected the results using a questionnaire. The whole class shared an identical
questionnaire; this was so that it would be possible to merge our results and
therefore maximise the number of surveys. The surveys contain questions such as:
how did you get here? Are you shopping or just browsing? What method of payment
do you prefer?
We also took pictures to back up our results: pictures were taken by the teachers that
were supervising us, as well as other students. I took some pictures, and also traded
pictures with another student in my group, Becky Wilson.
In addition, we made land-use diagrams, environment survey and pedestrian count.
Each group did one of each, and the results were merged together.
Conditions on the day

Conditions on the day were pleasant. The sun came out periodically, and
temperatures were quite high compared to recent conditions. The weather, as
provided by AccuWeather.com, is provided below:

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Results
Core Hypotheses
Theory 1: The CBD will have the largest sphere of influence

(Please see Sphere of Influence diagram)

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Theory 2: Most people in Littleover buy low order or

convenience goods compared to Kingsway and the city centre
Graph showing goods bought from different

sections
35
30
30
25 22 Everyday goods
People
20 Specialist items
15 11 11
Weekly shop
10 8 Other
6 6
5 1 1 1 1 2
0
CITY CENTRE KINGSWAY LITTLEOVER
Area
The above graph shows how many people surveyed in each area were there to buy
certain goods. We can see from this graph that this core hypothesis is correct. A
total of 23 people at Littleover were there to purchase everyday (convenience) or
weekly (low-order) goods, compared with 12 in the CBD and 2 at Kingsway.
• By far, the most everyday goods are bought from Littleover.

• It is likely that people come to the Littleover shopping parade to buy everyday
goods because they live nearby and it is more convenient to visit these
nearby shops than having to go to town for similar products.
• More people surveyed in the CBD were doing their weekly shop than in
Littleover – this is probably because there aren’t any large supermarkets in
Littleover; the only shop to sell weekly-shop-style goods is Iceland, which
predominantly frozen foods and few other low-order goods.

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Theory 3: People visit Kingsway least often of the three sites
Graph showing how often people visit different

shopping sites
20
18
16
Number of people
14
12
10
8
6
4
2
0
CITY CENTRE KINGSWAY LITTLEOVER
Shopping site
Daily Once a week or more Once a fortnight

Once a month Less than once a month
Here we can see that Littleover is by far the most commonly visited of the three sites,
with 28 people out of the 32 asked visiting either daily or at least once a week, and
with only 2 people asked visiting less than once a fortnight and no-one visiting less
than once a month. This compares to 25 people out of the 33 asked visiting
Kingsway just once a month or less.
• Only 24% of people surveyed at Kingsway visited more than once a month,
compared to 71% in the CBD and 94% in Littleover.
• Kingsway is full of stores selling high-order goods such as electrical and DIY
equipment. It is unlikely that shoppers here will need to visit as often as they
visit the CBD or their suburban shopping parade as high order goods are
needed much less often than the low-order goods found in the CBD and
Littleover.
• People go to Littleover mostly to buy everyday (i.e. low-low order) goods, and
so will need to go every few days. The number of shops selling similar goods
in the CBD means that shoppers can spend more time comparison shopping;
also the wide range of shops allows people to browse or just look around.
The shops in Kingsway mostly sell specialist items, are out of the way, and
aren’t really accessible by foot or public transport.

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Theory 4: Most people use credit cards to pay for goods at

Kingsway
Methods of payment at Kingsway
0%
6%
24%
Cash
30% Switch/debit card
Credit Card
Cheque
Other
40%
As we can see, the theory that most shoppers at Kingsway use credit cards is
incorrect. Most people at the retail park favour switch or debit cards as a method of
payment – however, credit cards are still the second most popular method of
payment.
• Switch/debit cards, credit cards and cash make up 94% of the payments, with
the one-popular cheque being used for just 6% of payments.
• ‘Plastic money’ (credit cards and debit or switch cards) makes up 70% of
payments;
• Less than a quarter of payments are made using hard cash – one possible
reason for this is because goods at Kingsway in general cost more than
shops at urban shopping parades or in town, and people are reluctant to
carry large amounts of money on their person.

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Theory 5: Walking is the preferred form of transport at

Littleover
Methods of transport at Littleover
0% 6%
Walk
30% Bus
Car
55%
Cycle
Other
9%
From the graph above, we can clearly see that this core hypothesis is true. Over half
of those surveyed arrived by foot.
• 55% of those surveyed arrived by foot – 25% more than the next most
popular mode of transport. This is probably because most shoppers who visit
suburban shopping parades are there because they live nearby and the
shops are convenient;
• Almost 40% of those surveyed arrived either by car or by bus – the fact that
there is a car park outside the shops and numerous bus-stops nearby may
have contributed to this;
• No-one arrived by bike.

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My Hypotheses
Theory 1: Most people who have visited the Central Business

District (CBD) have arrived via public transport
Graph showing methods of trasport to the CBD
16
14
Number of people
12
10
8
6
4
2
0
Walk Bus Car Cycle Other
We can see from my graph that my prediction is correct – although only by one
person. A larger sample may help to make a more definite outcome.
• 44% of those surveyed arrived by bus – this may be because the CBD is too
far to travel on foot and busses are a cheap alternative to city car parks
• 41% of those surveyed arrived by car – cars are convenient and have storage
space for purchases made in town

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Theory 2: There are more women shoppers on weekdays than

male shoppers
Types of shoppers
45
40
35
Number of shoppers
30 Male single
25 Female single
20 Couple
15 Group
10
5
0
We can see from my graph that my predictions are correct – there are more women
shoppers on weekdays than male shoppers, couples or groups.
• Out of those surveyed, 42 were single female shoppers;

• Single male shoppers were the second most common out of those surveyed;
• Very few people (only 10 out of our sample) were in a group, and only 17
were as a couple.

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Theory 3: The majority of shoppers at Littleover will be over

60
Ages at Littleover
19 - 40
15
41 - 60
61+
15
From the chart we can see that my hypothesis is somewhat correct: there are a large
number of over-61 year-olds at Littleover, according to our sample.
• There are 15 over-60 year-olds in our sample, making it dual top along with
41-60 year-olds;
• There are very few (only 3) 19-40 year-olds in our sample;
• Even though my hypothesis was not entirely correct, the vast majority of my
sample were in the older two age ranges.

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Other results
Pedestrian Count
Graph showing pedestrian counts at shopping sites
160
140
120
Number of people
100
80
60
40
20
0
Pedestrian count
City Centre Kingsw ay Littleover
Environmental Survey
Graph showing environmental conditions
3.5
3
Rating out of 3
2.5 Litter
2 Pavements
1.5 Street furniture
1 Graffiti
0.5
0
City centre Kingsway Littleover
Key:
0. Poor
1. Unacceptable
2. Acceptable
3. Good

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Article on women shoppers
“When Cathy Bonaroti, of Oakmont, goes pleasure shopping -- for clothes, shoes,
home decor and the like -- she often goes alone.
It's not that she doesn't enjoy the company of girlfriends, but they can be distracting.
And her husband, Frank, would rather play golf.”
From http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/living/fashion/s_463868.html (visit for full

article)
Map of Care Homes in Littleover
In the above picture, the dots on ‘Burton Road’ (8, 4, 1 etc.) are in Littleover.

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Conclusions
Core hypotheses:
The city centre will have the largest sphere of influence

The CBD does indeed have the largest sphere of influence, although Kingsway also
has a large sphere of influence.
People come to the Central Business District because it contains a wide variety of
shops that people may not have access to locally such medium and high order shops
as can be seen on the land-use maps. People tend to visit the CBD less often than
Littleover (graph for hypothesis 3) because there are not as many low-order shops.
People need to travel longer distances to their nearest CBD, however, to have
access to the medium or high-order shops that don’t locate on urban shopping
parades.
Most people in Littleover buy low order or convenience goods

compared to Kingsway and the city centre
From my findings, it is clear that by a large margin, the most everyday goods are
bought from Littleover. This proves this core hypothesis.
Many people choose to buy low-order goods from Littleover because of the
convenience of its location. As we can see from the graph for the 5th hypothesis,
most shoppers walk to Littleover, suggesting that they live in close proximity to the
shopping parade.
In addition, if we look at the land usage map for Littleover, we see that most of the
shops are either low-order shops or services. There are shops for everyday items
such as Littleover Lunchbox, Birds and Stuart Marshall Butchers, and services such
as a post office, hairdressers, and a pub. All of the above shops could are shops that
would be useful to have nearby in walking distance – if you fancied a haircut, for
example, or fancied a cut of meat for dinner.
In addition there are two shops at Littleover that are large enough for the weekly
shop – Iceland or Sommerfield.
People visit Kingsway least often of the three sites

From the relative graph, we can see that only 24% of the people surveyed at
Kingsway visited more than once a month. This compares with 71% for the CBD and
94% in Littleover. This shows that this core hypothesis is core hypothesis is correct.
This also ties in with the background theory diagram that shows that people visit the
development zone least often.
The Kingsway land-use map shows that most of the site is dedicated to high order
shops, with a few medium order shops and one medium-low order shop (boots).
This is most likely reason for why people visit so infrequently – people need to visit
towns and urban shopping parades more often for weekly shops, haircuts and so on.
Some people also visit the CBD for browsing and shop-front shopping – this is
something that you can’t really do at a retail park.
Transport is another issue at Kingsway – there are not very good bus links, and the
site is quite a walk from the surrounding residential areas. This means that people

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have to travel by car, and may be reluctant to do so when there are shops similar to
the low and medium order shops in nearer locations to them, such as on urban
shopping parades or the CBD.
Most people use credit cards to pay for goods at Kingsway

30% of shoppers at Kingsway use credit cards as a method of payment – but 40%
use debit or switch cards. This means that this core hypothesis is false. However,
this still means that 70% of shoppers use ‘plastic money’.
More shoppers use debit or Switch cards than anything else, and as many people
use credit cards as the users of cash and cheques combined. This is most likely
because the high-order goods that Kingsway provides are too expensive to be paid in
cash, or because ‘plastic money’ is more convenient than cash, and quicker than
checks.
Since credit cards have been introduced, there has been a lot of publicity over how
the use of credit cards can lead to debts; debit/Switch cards are probably more
popular due to the relative safety of only being able to spend what you actually have.
Walking is the preferred form of transport at Littleover

This is true – 25% more people arrived by foot than the second most popular form of
transport. People probably walk to Littleover because it is full of convenience, low-
order and service shops (see above), and walking is a cheap, viable option. We can
see that people live in walking distance from the spheres of influence maps.
Many of the shoppers in our Littleover sample were elderly or middle-aged, and
therefore not in prime shape. Not everyone has the strength or energy or drive to
walk to the shops, and this – coupled with the dedicated car park and nearby bus
links – is the likely cause of the 40% of people who travel by car or bus.
My hypotheses
Most people who have visited the Central Business District

(CBD) have arrived via public transport
This hypothesis is technically correct, as public transport is the method of transport

used by most shoppers in the sample. However, only one more person caught public
transport as opposed to driving. If more accurate results are needed, this survey
could be repeated using a larger sample.
Public transport is popular because it’s relatively cheap compared to car parks, and
is also useful if a car isn’t available. However, there is not enough storage spaces on
busses to store all of some people’s purchases, which may explain the large number
of shoppers who arrived by car.
The mixture of transport methods may also be down to the distance people live from
the CBD – there may be no conveniently placed bus stops near to their houses if
they live further away, and the sphere of influence maps show that the CBD draws
shoppers in from a large radius.

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There are more women shoppers on weekdays than male

shoppers
We can see from my results that this hypothesis is indeed correct. The results also
show that single males are the next most common, followed by couples and finally
groups.
An article on shopping (an extract of which is included in the results) states that many
women shop because they find it pleasurable, whereas men find entertainment in
other pursuits and are more likely to shop only when they have to. Many women also
choose to shop alone because it lessens the distractions. This explains the lack of
groups seen in towns. If this survey was taken on a weekend, however, the results
may be somewhat different, as people are more likely to go shopping as a ‘day out’
with their friends.
The majority of shoppers at Littleover will be over 60

The results show that a large number of the shoppers are over 60 – although there
were an equal number of 41-60 year olds. This means that most of the shoppers
were older people – there were only 3 19-40 year olds in our survey.
Many older people are likely to shop at Littleover because of the convenience
mentioned in other hypotheses, such as being nearby and having good transport
links. There are a number of care homes in Littleover – this could also explain the
number of older people at the shops (see ‘Map of Care Homes in Littleover).
Older people tend to have less independence compared with younger people, and
rely on being able to catch the bus to or walk short distances to amenities. Results
show that many people travel to Littleover by bus, and older people who travel by bus
or walk aren’t going to be able to carry huge amounts of shopping, necessitating
more frequent trips for this age band and thereby increasing the number of them
there at any one time.

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Evaluation
My project
I believe that my project was a success because I found everything that I set out to
find out and also collected a large amount of data that could be useful to other
people.
If I completed this study again, I would collect more information so that when
everything is averaged out the results would be more accurate. I feel that not
enough people were interviewed to make this survey entirely accurate or useful. I
would also like to compare the Derby results to other results, such as that of another
urban shopping parade or central business district.
If the study had been completed on a different day, we may have had different
results. Many people choose to go shopping for recreation at the weekend – this
may show up in our results. The days and hours that people work will affect our
results (some people that would have liked to have been shopping may have been
working), as will the weather (people are less likely to want to go shopping in the rain,
for instance) and the time of year (there may be more people shopping in December
as people buy presents for friends and family around this time).
People who are interested in setting up a business may be interested in my study, as
it shows where people are likely to be shopping for certain goods, and therefore they
will be able to make a good decision on where to site their business.

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GCSE Geography - An Investigation Into Shopping Patterns in Derby

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Geography – An Investigation into Shopping Patterns in Derby

An Investigation into Shopping

Candidate Number Dan Foy Landau Forte College

Candidate Number Dan Foy Landau Forte College

Candidate Number Dan Foy Landau Forte College

Map of Derby courtesy of Multimap.com

Map of Derby and surrounding cities courtesy of Multimap.com

Candidate Number Dan Foy Landau Forte College

Close-up of Derby courtesy of Google Maps

Introduction to the three areas

Derby City Centre (The Central Business District)

Littleover (the Urban Shopping Parade)

Kingsway (the Retail Park)

Introduction to the investigation

Candidate Number Dan Foy Landau Forte College

• The Central Business District (CBD);

1. The city centre will have the largest sphere of influence;

Candidate Number Dan Foy Landau Forte College

Candidate Number Dan Foy Landau Forte College

Conditions on the day

Candidate Number Dan Foy Landau Forte College

Theory 1: The CBD will have the largest sphere of influence

Candidate Number Dan Foy Landau Forte College

Theory 2: Most people in Littleover buy low order or

Graph showing goods bought from different

• By far, the most everyday goods are bought from Littleover.

Candidate Number Dan Foy Landau Forte College

Theory 3: People visit Kingsway least often of the three sites

Graph showing how often people visit different

Daily Once a week or more Once a fortnight

Candidate Number Dan Foy Landau Forte College

Theory 4: Most people use credit cards to pay for goods at

Methods of payment at Kingsway

Candidate Number Dan Foy Landau Forte College

Theory 5: Walking is the preferred form of transport at

Methods of transport at Littleover

Candidate Number Dan Foy Landau Forte College

Theory 1: Most people who have visited the Central Business

Graph showing methods of trasport to the CBD

Walk Bus Car Cycle Other

Candidate Number Dan Foy Landau Forte College

Theory 2: There are more women shoppers on weekdays than

• Out of those surveyed, 42 were single female shoppers;

Candidate Number Dan Foy Landau Forte College

Theory 3: The majority of shoppers at Littleover will be over

Candidate Number Dan Foy Landau Forte College

Graph showing pedestrian counts at shopping sites

City Centre Kingsw ay Littleover

Graph showing environmental conditions

Candidate Number Dan Foy Landau Forte College

Article on women shoppers

From http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/living/fashion/s_463868.html (visit for full

Map of Care Homes in Littleover

Candidate Number Dan Foy Landau Forte College

The city centre will have the largest sphere of influence

Most people in Littleover buy low order or convenience goods

People visit Kingsway least often of the three sites

Candidate Number Dan Foy Landau Forte College

Most people use credit cards to pay for goods at Kingsway

Walking is the preferred form of transport at Littleover

Most people who have visited the Central Business District

This hypothesis is technically correct, as public transport is the method of transport

Candidate Number Dan Foy Landau Forte College