Do people travel further to buy comparison goods rather than convenience goods?

My title asks, do concourse endure further to corrupt proportion goods rather than contraption goods? My info collection was carried follow out in the central business district (CBD) of St Albans. My habitual aim is to investigate a ramble on of interests of shoppers in the welkin and in addition a little on the land theatrical role in the CBD. Once sufficient data is stack away I will be manipulating it to dish out my hypothesis and to draw a conclusion from the relevant results.St Albans was visited on a trade day, which is held in the of import street of the metropolis every Wednesday and Saturday. It was a suitable think over argona as it has m whatever distinguishable aspects to it which would suit the needs for varied types of data collection for many students with a large variety of hypothesises and questions.St Albans is located in Hertforshire, southwestern-eastern England, on the River Ver, near its confluence with the Colne. St Albans is situated on t he northern strike of Greater capital of the United Kingdom. The district includes the city and the parishes of Colney Heath, Harpenden Rural, Harpenden Town, London Colney, Redbourn, St. Michael, St. Stephen, Sandridge and Wheathampstead. (See betoken 3). Nearby places away(p) the district include Hatfield to the east, Welwyn Garden City to the north-east, Luton and Dunstable to the north-west, Hemel Hempstead to the west, Watford to the south-west and Borehamwood to the south. (See framing 1 and figure 2). The population in mid-1998 was estimated at 131,400. (See figure 6).In the CBD of St Albans, our study included the roads, merchandise place (where the foodstuff is held), Chequer Street, Victoria Street, Peters Street, London Road, Holy swell up Hill, High Street, Verulam Road, Dagnall Street, Spencer Street, Catherine Street and Hatfield Road. (See figure 4 and figure 5).There are two main hire stations. The city station is about 750m east of the city centre and is ser viced by Thameslink. The abbey station is about 1km south of the city centre and is serviced by Silverlink. There is withal a single train running between St Albans and Watford Junction, starting a new round slickness every 45 minutes during most of the day.Housing is expensive coitus to England in general, possibly due to the fast commuting to London by train. Notable buildings include St Albans Cathedral.The sphere of influence is the area served by a settlement, both(prenominal) condemnations called a catchment area or hinterland. The larger the settlement, the greater the lean and variety of shops and operate and the wider the area from which lot will travel to expend the centre. Londons sphere of influence is the whole country. Outside London towns such(prenominal) as Plymouth, Newcastle, Leeds and Norwich serve local regions. Market towns serve smaller villages and farawayms in the area. A village precisely serves itself and some surrounding farms.Smaller settlements tend to amaze fewer shops and services than larger settlements. The shops, such as a general store, newsagent, small super grocery and chemist tend to provide low- collection or doohickey goods such as themes, bread and milk. In larger settlements on that point are much shops and services. They include shops selling convenience goods just there are also department stores and specializer shops selling jewellery, sports equipment and furniture. These are called high-order or comparison goods. The types of goods and services in a settlement are linked to the following The doorway population the minimum number of volume required to support a service so that it remains profitable. In the UK this is about 300 for a village shop, 500 for a primary school, 25000 for a shoe shop, 50000 for a medium sized store and 100000 for a large mavin. The range of a good the maximum outer space hoi polloi are lively to travel to use a shop or service. Most people do not travel great dista nces to secure a newspaper or do their shopping but they are lively to travel further to purchase clothes, jewellery or furniture, which are more than dear(p) and bought less often.MethodOn Wednesday 26th February 2003, geography students of Year 10 St. Helens School visited St Albans on a market day in order to carry out some geography fieldwork for coursework. During the morning it was sunny and clean warm, however, as the day went on, although it stayed sunny, it got colder.The CBD land use map (see figure 7) and the shoppers questionnaire (see figure 8) were carried out during the afternoon, when we were in the CBD. We were split into 11 groups of 4-5 people and were sent to one of the 11 sections of the CBD. By being split into groups and then spread to different areas all around the CBD, made data collection easier and quicker. My group and I were appointed to work in area 4, which included Chequer Street, Market Place and a small part of High Street. This area is in the heart of the CBD and was in an area where the market was being held.The CBD land use map was completed at about 1430. My group and I walked around our area completing our land use map by filling in how for each one store along the streets was used. E.g. Fast provender shop, shoe shop, newsagent etc. By doing this it showed us what proportion of stores were comparison and what proportion were convenience, were present in the CBD. This had to be pointed out as it could well publication whether people would travel further to buy either type of good. For example, if the CBD consisted almost completely of convenience stores, it whitethorn not be in addition likely that a lot of people would travel from very far to shop at the small range of comparison stores.There were a few problems with this method of data collection however. First of all, it was quite vexed to fill in every shop on the map. Some of the stores were effortful to find or couldnt be found at all. Also, the map was a little too small to fill in enough detail.The shoppers questionnaire was carried out later on in the day. Each individual in each group was advised to ask at least 5 different people who were seen in their fact area of the CBD. By asking the authentic shoppers in St Albans, it allowed us to see their interests, whether they came to shop for comparison goods or convenience goods, how far they pay off traveled to buy what they wanted to buy, where bouts they fuck off come from etc. Each question in the questionnaire had a different purpose, and some had some problems with them Are you shopping in St Albans? this was the first question asked. If the help was no to this question, most of the new(prenominal) questions that followed would be completely irrelevant. Were you held up in any traffic jam? there was a problem with this question because, if the soulfulness being questioned traveled by foot it would not be a relevant. Some terms in the some of the questions were not un derstood by everybody. For example, Have you come to use specialist services?, the term specialist services was not always understood and it had to be explained on many occasions. If the person being questioned was in a rush, they whitethorn not have had time to ask what the term esteemt, consequently giving an inaccurate answer which could effect the results. Where have you come from today to shop in St Albans? this question may have caused problems as people were sometimes too vague with their answer because they may not have wanted us to know where they came from or maybe where they lived. E.g. If the person said that they came from London, it would have been too vague as from that, we do not know if they came from the CBD of London or the suburbs etc.depth psychology and InterpretationFrom studying the zest line maps (see figure 9 and figure 10) that I have haggard for both the distances people are brisk to travel for either comparison or convenience goods, it is fairly exp licit that there are more people coming into St Albans from the south than from the north. This may be because of accessibility from these areas in the south and north to St Albans. I hatful see that there are better thruway links from the south than from the north. From the south there is the M1, A1, A41 etc. However from the north, although there are a few motorway links, it is more limited.Again from looking at the hope line maps, I bunghole see that the results for comparison goods and convenience goods do not differ greatly at all. They both are drawn slightly north from Harpenden, and attracted greatly south-west by people change of location from Greater London. There are not so many people however travelling form the north-east or the south-west. Both proneness line maps are very similar to each new(prenominal), though there is one anomaly on the comparison goods map. This anomaly is the person who had travelled from Enfield which drew the sphere of influence further east. This, again, seems to be due to motorway links.A possible reason as to why the two desire line maps are so similar may be there is not a very large range of comparison goods in St Albans. From the CBD land use map, (see figure 12) even though it shows that there is a greater proportion of comparison stores than convenience stores, it may not mean that there is a large and wide variety of comparison stores. And at the same time, the market may have all-encompassing the distance people are volition to travel for convenience goods.Even though the market is of mainly convenience goods, people may sleek over be prepared to travel from fairly far to shop in the market. This may be because people see that St Albans has a different atmosphere to any other market. For example, despite the fact that there is Watford Market in Watford, we can still see that quite a few people have travelled from Watford to shop and to use the market in St Albans. This may be because Watford Market dif fers greatly from the market in St Albans. Firstly, Watford Market is indoors. On the day we visited St Albans, the weather was very good, so that could have attracted more people.Watford Market is also only open on Tuesdays, Fridays and Saturdays, so because of this, people in Watford may have needed to buy something from a market even though the market in their area was closed. So, as the market in St. Albans is open on Wednesdays, and the day we visited the market was on a Wednesday, their may have been more people from Watford on that day, who wanted to use the market in St Albans. St Albans is also a fairly historical area, for example there are prestigious monuments such as St Albans Cathedral and the Clock Tower. This again could be other reason as to why people are attracted to the market in St Albans rather than a market in their own area or one nearer than the one St Albans.ConclusionMy title asked do people travel further to buy comparison goods rather than convenience goods? From my results and interpretations I have been able to come to a conclusion to answer the question.I was able to see from my interpretations of the two desire line maps that the spheres of influences are of or so the same shapes. The only factor that makes than a little different is the anomaly of the single person who had travelled from Enfield on that particular day.Also, all the reasons I have given as to why people may have travelled from particular places to buy either of the types of goods, even each other out. For example, the lack of variety of comparison stores lowers the distance people would be willing to travel for comparison goods, but at the same time the distance people would be willing to travel for convenience goods is being extended due to the unique market St Albans has.The results and interpretations dont particularly match text record book predictions saying that people travel further to buy comparison goods than convenience goods. The ranges of the g oods are very similar in this study and it shows that many factors can effect the distance people would be willing to travel to buy a particular good or to use a particular service. Therefore, one cannot always be grounded on the idea that comparison goods are always travelled further for than convenience goods are.To conclude, people do not travel further to buy comparison goods rather than convenience goods, but they travel about the same distances for either.