Untitled - Cork City Council

Appendix 3 : The Surveys of Shopping Patterns
tended to be short-distance food shoppers and most common at the end of the week. We
therefore weighted the results by exit and time of the week in accordance with data from the
automatic counters at each exit, kindly provided by the Mahon Point Centre management. In the
City centre there was no noticeable difference by interview point but significant differences by
day of the week. We therefore weighted by day, in accordance with footfall counts that the
interviewers carried out in the course of their work. In the results set out below the percentages
have been weighted in these ways, but the numbers of respondents are the actual numbers
responding to each question (These vary because some questions did not apply to all
respondents or because a few respondents did not answer particular questions)
5 Although the survey was confined to shoppers, shopping was not always the main reason for
the current visit, as shown by the following table. At Mahon Point, one in eight were there for
work, to visit the cinema or cafes, or to meet friends over coffee. In the City, such purposes
were even more common. Of those whose main purpose was shopping, the great majority were
on comparison shopping expeditions: at Mahon Point, only a quarter were mainly there to buy
food or groceries, and less than a tenth in the City Centre.
Table 2 Main Purpose of Current Visit
Mahon Point City Centre
No of respondents 394 594
% %
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
6 We now turn to a central feature of the survey; to investigate how much trade comes from
outside the County. Table 4.3 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.
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