Shopping
Info > Pages
Sevenoaks Council has recently published a survey into local shopping and leisure habits (Sevenoaks District Retail Study, 2016), based on interviews in 16 areas. Hartley, Longfield, New Ash Green and Meopham form one area which spends £179m annually on shopping. The inclusion of Meopham probably means the Gravesend score is higher than it would be for just the Longfield area. And the survey appears to be over weighted towards Meopham too.
The survey contains a lot of detailed information relating to our area. It shows that overwhelmingly this area looks north for its shopping. Bluewater alone accounts for 65% of all non-food shopping, while Sevenoaks is only 1%.
When it comes to food shopping, the Longfield Waitrose has 21% of the local market. But the influence of Gravesend is strong, accounting for the next 5 most popular stores, led by Sainsburys Pepper Hill (17%). People do not travel so far for food, so the local shops do better here, in particular the Hartley & NAG Co-op. Most go food shopping by car, just 2.5% use public transport.
From the small number of those who said they only shopped by internet, Sainsburys predominated with 64%.
People were prepared to travel more widely. For theatres and museums, central London was most popular (58%), followed by Dartford (Orchard 20%, Museum 2%). The Stag at Sevenoaks scored 7%. The pubs and clubs figure looks wrong for this area as Hartley scores nil, in spite of the existence of three such venues. For fitness Gravesend (35%), New Ash Green (21%) and Dartford (12%) were most popular.
New Ash Green centre is identified as a problem area which requires regeneration, and it is suggested the council buy some of the units to achieve this. However the council does not want to see the minor centres like New Ash Green expand, apparently because it might take business from the higher level centres.
Food Shopping
The survey asked people to name the shop or town they most often went to for food shopping, and also any other that they regularly went to. They were also asked where they went to for "top up" shopping. Gravesend and Longfield take the lion's share of this shopping. For the purposes of this report "Longfield" includes Hartley and New Ash Green; Waitrose in Longfield having many local customers, but also attacting trade from a wider area than other local stores. The Coop in Hartley was popular mainly for topup shopping.
The figures are for the Longfield/Meopham area (DA3 7/8 and DA13 0 postcode sectors). The figures are too weighted towards Meopham because 49 out of the 106 surveyed were from Meopham, whereas a sample based on population should have been 37. This probably has the effect of making the Morrisons at Colharbour Road (22.5%) the most popular store in the survey area, when for Hartley this is much more likely to be the second placed Sainsburys at Pepper Hill (21.5%). At 19.5% Waitrose in Longfield was 3rd.
The survey is also too weighted towards retired people, 52% of those who took part were retired but the actual figure for this area is 30%. This is also reflected in the underrepresentation of families with children, the survey had only 15% when the number of households with dependent children in this area is 45%. This is bound to have affected the results.
Comparison Goods
These tend to be items people don't shop every week for. They are also ones offered by higher level shopping centres.
The figures are for the Longfield/Meopham area (DA3 7/8 and DA13 0 postcode sectors). The figures are too weighted towards Meopham because 49 out of the 106 surveyed were from Meopham, whereas a sample based on population should have been 37. This probably has the effect of increasing the percentage for Gravesend across the board.
The survey is also too weighted towards retired people, 52% of those who took part were retired but the actual figure for this area is 30%. This is also reflected in the underrepresentation of families with children, the survey had only 15% when the number of households with dependent children in this area is 45%. This is bound to have affected the results.
For the Longfield and Meopham area, Bluewater stands shoulders above any other shopping centre. It is followed by Gravesend and Dartford. Dartford is particularly important for DIY.