Heart and LBC questioned 795 listeners aged 25+ about their shopping habits . We know that retail therapy has become an official leisure pursuit, but we wanted to know whether consumers shop at certain retailers out of habit or loyalty, what they feel about certain brands and what do they stop buying first when money is in short supply?

To conduct research into consumers shopping trends. Do they shop out of habit or loyalty? Look at brand attitudes and what products people stop buying when money is in short supply.

A survey was sent out to the VIP listener database for LBC 97.3 and Heart 106.2 in London and 100.7 Heart FM in the West Midlands. Listeners were incentivised to answer questions with the chance to win shopping vouchers. The results were then tabulated and checked by our research team and trends were analysed.We asked listeners questions about supermarket shopping habits, city centre versus out of town shopping , what was the last luxury item they purchased, plus what they saved for and their overal attitude to both the shopping experience and to specific retail brands.

The survey findings give an insight into the retail market from the point of view of the 25 - 44 year old consumer, represented by the Heart listener and the 35 - 55 year old consumer, as represented by the LBC listener.

The information from this survey has been useful for a number of retail advertisers ranging from supermarkets to West End outlets.The survey gives a useful insight for any client involved in retail as it targeted a specific 'community of interest' who have significant spending power.