Shopping centres in the North will suffer more from the credit crunch, a report by research group CACI said today.
Northern retail destinations have less ‘credit crunch resistant’ shoppers, the company’s retail footprint study, meaning they are more exposed to the decline in consumer spending.
‘Credit crunch resistant’ consumers are defined as over 55 years old, normally retired and from an affluent background. These are the people more likely to have no mortgages and loans, and a higher than average income.
Borrow now pay later
‘The most resistant locations are attracting these kinds of shoppers with their upmarket offer,’ said CACI principal consultant Nielsen Harrap.
‘The Guildfords, Kingstons, Readings and Tunbridge Wells of this world are those that are going to see little impact from the lack of the ‘borrow now pay later’ attitude previously seen in our economy. Those that could feel the pinch include Bradford, Sunderland and Doncaster.’
In the CACI rankings of Bradford, Barnsley and Walsall have the least crunch resistant consumers who account for 8.6%, 8.9% and 9.5% of all their shoppers respectively.
Epsom, Guildford and High Wycome have the most crunch resistant consumers with 26.3%, 26% and 25.1% respectively.
The UK average proportion of crunch resistant shoppers is 14%.
