We love to grab a bargain
We all love a good bargain, and it seems that we're willing to work for it too. New research reveals that Brits spend up to 130 days searching for the ultimate deal during their lifetime.
Over 96% of the nation make as many as 156 store visits each year in a bid to bag the best prices for their weekly shop, with 20% spending up to half an hour on each trip trawling the aisles checking prices and offers.
Bargain hunting behaviour
The research, conducted by Poundland of 2,000 UK consumers’ weekly shopping habits looked at how we shop today compared with a decade ago, and there is no doubt that we are going to extraordinary lengths to save money.
Almost half (46%) of customers said they used to spend only five minutes checking and comparing prices 10 years ago, whereas now to get the best bargain:
- 96% of shoppers scour up to three stores each week
- 71% of customers wander slowly up and down every aisle in search for a deal
- Almost a third go shopping at certain times of day when they know prices will be reduced in store
- A cheeky one in ten try their luck at haggling the price down
- And 5% would even damage an item to get a discount off at the till!
Jim McCarthy, CEO at Poundland says: “More than ever, the pressure is on shoppers to make their money stretch further as they spend increasing amounts of time and energy worrying about how to avoid a shock at the till point.”
It pays to be prepared
If savvy saving Brits are really going to get the best price, they are going to have to be stricter on how they shop. Nearly half of families said they don’t add up the total of their basket as they go around the store and “hope for the best” when they get to the checkout.
The same percentage of shoppers said they write a list before a shopping trip – yet over 90% of them don’t stick to it. Just a small few (9%) take their bargain hunter role very seriously and take a calculator with them on each shopping trip to ensure the final amount does not go a penny over the weekly budget.
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