Online Exchange Potential Impact - Wrap

on the distribution of social grade densities across the UK. The selected authorities are a broadly
representative cross-section of the UK, based on a socio-demographic gradient.
Table 3.1 Selected local authority areas and statistics
Local Authority No. of
households
South
Northamptonshire
Council
Chichester District
Council
Cardiff County
Council
Average
Household
Size
Total
Population
IMD
2007
%
population
social grade
D or E
Percentile of
proportion of
population
that is social
grade D or E
35,729 2.45 87,402 6.46 24.4% 10%
53,328 2.25 119,771 12.08 29.0% 30%
145,266 2.42 352,160 31.2% 50%
Highland Council 108,606 2.20 238,948 36.0% 70%
Doncaster MBC 130,465 2.33 304,349 30.84 41.5% 90%
Where possible, exchange groups located within these local authority areas have been used.
However, as described in the site-specific elements of Section 4.0, this was not always possible
because local groups do not conform to local authority area boundaries. For example, the aim of
Freegle is for items to be exchanged in the immediate community so groups are geographically quite
small and there may be several groups in different parts of one city. Other sites such as Gumtree are
more regional, and have one group for a whole county or a large urban area such as Manchester.
Where possible, for this research groups from each site share a geographic base; for instance, a
Milton Keynes group has been selected for three of the exchange sites. Where this has not been
possible an alternative location was identified. The groups were therefore chosen based on the
number of members, closeness of match to the desired socio-economic profile and the number of
items listed. For example, Towcester has been chosen to represent South Northamptonshire District
Council, and the Highland Council area is substituted by Aberdeenshire West and Central Fife.
Whilst the socio-demographic profile of the areas monitored was controlled through selecting a
suitable cross-section of area types, the social profile of the site users selling or buying and offering
or taking items on the sites monitored is unknown. The socio-economic characteristics of site users
were addressed through the consumer survey (see Section 5.0).
3.3 Items and products of interest
Online trade and exchange has been increasing steadily over the last decade in line with internet
access, and the demand and range of articles traded online is only limited by individual
entrepreneurship. Anecdotally, for every item of wide potential use available on the web there are
numerous other items which are more difficult to find new homes for, such as a large range of socalled
collectibles.
The huge variety of items presented for exchange obviously contributes to any benefit of online
trading (environmental or commercial) and, although occasionally interesting, they represent noise
that must be filtered to permit a focus on specific items or item groups. Therefore the research
focused on monitoring a number of priority items, which are also being investigated in other research
projects currently being undertaken on behalf of WRAP. The priority items are listed in Table 3.2. The
Online Exchange Potential Impact 9