Night shoppers in the “open 24 hours” supermarket: a profile

The paper aims to explore the characteristics of night shoppers at a large, out of centre UK supermarket which is “open 24 hours”.

An exploratory study of one such store based on short interviews with a stratified random sample of shoppers who completed their shopping between 22.00 and 08.00. Data were collected on customer demographics and shopping patterns.

It is shown that shopping is concentrated in the late evening and early morning with only low sales in the midnight to 6 a.m. time period. Shoppers, predominantly car users, are split equally between males and females although the females tend to be younger. Few people over 50 use the night shopping facility. Virtually all shoppers are in employment and many are engaged in shift working. The shoppers can be dichotomised into two groups: the weekly shoppers and the essential shoppers. A further categorisation of these two broad groups is proposed.

Provides retail management with a profile of the night shopper.

One of the first detailed studies of the night shopper in large supermarkets which are open 24 hours.