FEATURES Box 2-1:
Methodology Data for the current Australian report were combined from customer-exit surveys of 48 neighborhood, sub-regional and
regional shopping centers in four states: New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria and Western Australia. The Property Council of Australia (PCA) defines neighborhood centers as local shopping centers comprising a supermarket and up to around 35 specialty shops, typically located in residential areas, catering to basic daily retail needs. The total gross lettable area of retail (GLAR) for neighborhood centers is usually less than 10,000 square meters (sq m). Sub-regional centers, with a GLAR of between 10,000 and 30,000 sq m, typically incorporate at least one full-line discount department store (DDS), a major supermarket and around 40 or more specialty shops. Regional centers, with GLAR typically ranging from 30,000 and 50,000 sq m, incorporate one full- line department store (although a large center with two DDSs can qualify), a full-line DDS, one or more supermarkets and around 100 or more specialty shops. Regionals provide a wide variety of retail, service and entertainment facilities. However, this is not as exhaustive as those in major regional or super-regional centers, which may contain more than one full-line department store. The centers in which the 27,000 surveys were conducted were almost exclusively enclosed, climate-controlled malls entered
from a surrounding parking lot that formed part of the property. However, this study does not include data from Australia’s largest superregional center types. Shoppers had completed their visits just before being interviewed, thereby minimizing memory-based bias. (The impact of such bias is examined in Kanto T. Rintamäki, Antti Kanto, Hannu Kuusela and M. T. Spence, “Decomposing the Value of Department Store Shopping Into Utilitarian, Hedonic and Social Dimensions: Evidence from Finland,” International Journal of Retail and Distribution Management, Volume 34, No. 1, 2006, pp. 6-24. )The surveys, which targeted a representative sample of shoppers over the age of 14, lasted 12 to 15 minutes, ranging in sample size from 400 to 800 customers, depending on center size. Members of the field team conducting the surveys were experienced and trained according to guidelines by Interviewer Quality Control Australia, a quality-assurance program designed to ensure reliable results in data- collection procedures. Moreover, all processes complied with ISO 20252, the Australian standard for market, opinion and social research. The surveys, conducted between 2010 and 2012, collected demographic and income data as well as information about the
customer’s shopping trip. This included the reasons for visiting the center, mode of travel, frequency of visits, expenditure by product categories, time spent in the center, as well as whether the shopping trip was mission-oriented (i.e., shopping with a specific purpose, moving fairly quickly through the center) or leisure-oriented (leisurely paced, enjoying the shopping experience). The surveys took place from 2010 through 2012, each conducted with unique customers who were not interviewed for this study on any other occasion.
profiles more relevant to shopping patterns than the demographic categories used in the Census.3 Nor can age data be compared with the Census, because the current report grouped respondents in five-year age brackets and excluded anyone under 15. But the percentage of females interviewed was clearly
much higher than their share of the population (50.6%), supporting the commonly held view, as noted above, that women are responsible for the majority of shopping purchases. Average household size among respondents also exceeded the Census average of 2.6, indicating that larger household and family structures translate into increased shopping activity. Where the Census recorded 24.3% of all households as composed of one person, only 15.5% of exit-survey interviewees lived in this household structure. Differences also existed between employment status
recorded in the exit surveys and similar data in Labour Force Surveys (LFS), Australia's official monthly measure
3 Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), Census of Population and Housing. 4 Australian Bureau of Statistics, Labour Force, August 2011, p. 8.
INTERNATIONAL COUNCIL OF SHOPPING CENTERS 2 5 RETAIL PROPERTY INSIGHTS VOL. 20, NO. 1, 2013
of employment and unemployment. Taking a midpoint in our data collection time frame (2010-2012), LFS figures show that in August 2011, 43.2% of Australians aged 15 years and over were employed full time, with another 18.4% part time.4 Among exit-survey interviewees, 35.0% and 18.9% were in full-time and part-time employment, respectively. While LFS figures show that 35.0% of the Australian population aged 15 years and over were not in the paid workforce, 46.0% of interviewees self-identified as belonging in this category. The lower rate of shopping-center patrons in full-time employment than the national average is unsurprising, given that the surveys were conducted across the full seven-day week. Greater differentiation occurs when survey results
about employment by occupation are compared to 2011 Census and Labour Force figures. In terms of occupation and roles among paid employees, as Table 2-1 demonstrates, the percentage of interviewees engaged in
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