Summary of the 2013 annual survery
Opinion survey on shopping in Barcelona. Municipal omnibus.
Barcelona City Council provides you annual information on the public's opinion of shopping in the city and their shopping habits.
The range of shops, opening hours and the service received are the barometers used to gauge the degree of public satisfaction with shopping in Barcelona.
Residents' shopping habits show supermarkets are their favourite place for buying food, while they prefer to go to local and specialist shops to buy clothes and shoes.
The percentage total for neighbourhood or specialist shops and municipal markets (72.5%) makes it clear the people interviewed feel they receive a better service from local retailers. And 51.5% of those who usually do their household shopping say they feel they get better service in a neighbourhood or specialist shop, compared to 21% for the municipal markets. These are followed by supermarkets (12.3%) shopping centres (6%) department stores (2.7%) and hypermarkets (1.2%).
When it comes to rating an establishment, shoppers say they value fairly or considerably: honesty (96.1%), professionalism (95.2%) and treatment received (94.7%), speed (90%) and advice on products (87.3%).
When buying food, 58.5% of those interviewed said they prefer to pay in cash, while 37.9% are more inclined to pay by debit or credit card. The 25-44 age group (over 50%) are more likely to pay for food with a debit or credit card.
When asked about buying other everyday products, the majority of the interviewees (56.5%) said they pay in cash and 39.9% normally use a debit or credit card. Here again, some 60% of the interviewees aged between 25 and 45 said they are more likely to go for a card.
However, 66% of the interviewees said they prefer to pay for clothes and shoes by debit or credit card, as opposed to 31.2% who said they pay for such items in cash. It is people over the age of 64 who pay more in cash, while over 80% of the 25-44 age group use a debit or credit card.
As for household goods, paying with debit or credit cards is also more common (69.1%) than paying in cash (23.2%). Note, moreover, that 6.5% said they do not usually buy these items. In this case, it is those aged between 35 and 44 who pay most with a card (84.5%)
When it comes to leisure products, there is practically no difference between those who prefer to pay in cash (46.7%) and by card (45.6%). People aged between 25 and 44 (over 62%) tend to pay more for leisure goods than the other age groups do.
Ninety-two percent of Barcelona residents do most of their food shopping locally. The breakdown is as follows: 58.6% usually buy food in supermarkets, 18.3% in municipal markets and 15.1% in neighbourhood or specialised shops. Only 3% make their food purchases in hypermarkets, 1.4% in shopping centres and 2.3% in large department stores.
In December 2013 an increase was observed in purchases in municipal markets (2.9%) and neighbourhood or specialised shops (2.7%) compared to June of the same year.
Almost 50% of Barcelona residents (48.4%) tend to purchase clothes and shoes in neighbourhood or specialised shops, as opposed to 31.8% who prefer to purchase these items in shopping centres and 14% who purchase them in large department stores.
There were no significant variations as regards buying clothes and shoes at neighbourhood and specialist shops between December 2012 and 2013. However, there was a slight increase in the market share of shopping centres (1%) and a decrease with respect to large department stores (1.5%).
Over half (54.6%) of Barcelona residents say that they have purchased over the internet at some time. The upward trend that began in June 2013 continues, following the fall in 2012 (38.9%).