Untitled - Cork City Council

Cork Strategic Retail Study
Table 4.1 Main Purpose of Current Visit
No. of Respondents
Mahon Point
394
%
City Centre
594
%
Supermarket shopping 24.7 4.9
Shopping for food/groceries elsewhere 0.3 2.3
Shopping for clothes/shoes 55.1 64.2
Visit the market 0.9 1.2
Other forms of shopping 7.6 7.7
Visiting bars/cafes/restaurants 2.9 0.2
Bank. Building society, finance 0.0 0.5
Leisure/recreation 6.0 9.7
Education 0.0 1.4
Work here 2.6 7.9
Other 0.0 0.0
Total percentage 100.0 100.0
4.5 We now turn to a central feature of the survey; to investigate how much trade comes
from outside the County. The survey shows that 5% of the Mahon Point respondents
lived outside County Cork, mainly in the neighbouring counties of Limerick, Kerry,
Waterford and Tipperary. There was a similar representation of these counties in the
City centre, but also a larger presence from other parts of the Republic, or from
overseas, so that in total 9% of City Centre respondents lived outside the County (see
Table 3 in Appendix 3).
4.6 Some of these “non–Corkers” make regular shopping visits from their homes outside
the county, invariably for comparison purchases (none of them gave food or grocery
shopping as their main purpose). But there was also a more random element: at
Mahon Point, 72% said they did not shop there regularly, or that this was their first visit
(the comparable figure in the City centre was 34%).
4.7 It is to be expected that there are people from nearby counties making regular
comparison shopping trips, since high level shopping facilities are sparse in Kerry and
Tipperary and less attractive than Cork City in many other nearby areas. And, as we
can see, Cork City Centre and Mahon Point are also benefiting from occasional visitors
to the county.
4.8 Long distance visitors like these tend to spend more than other shoppers. At Mahon
Point, where respondents were interviewed as they left the centre, we asked how
much they and other members of their shopping party had spent on the current trip. In
the City Centre we asked how much respondents expected their parties to spend in
total on the current trip.
4.9 For all shopping parties, average expenditure was €127 at Mahon Point and €82 in the
City Centre. Expenditure by non-residents was about one third higher – averaging €167
at Mahon Point and €111 in the City centre. Non residents spent very little on
convenience goods so their expenditure on comparison goods was considerably
higher than that of all shoppers.
4.10 If we take account of these differences in expenditure it can be shown that people from
outside the County accounted for 8% of Mahon Point’s comparison trade and 14% of
that in the City centre. By contrast, their contribution to convenience turnover was
negligible – less than 1% at Mahon Point and only just over 1% in the City Centre
Roger Tym & Partners with Simon Clear & Associates
March 2008 24