Leave us to our shops in peace!

KERRY PEOPLE PREFER TO SHOP ON THEIR OWN, ACCORDING TO SURVEY

DON’T cramp the average Kerry person’s shopping - we much prefer to go at the stores on our own.

That’s one of the results of a new survey giving an interesting and fairly rare glimpse into the shopping habits of the county this week.

Research undertaken by the chain Argos has found that Kerry people prefer to shop alone and when we do mount our solo shopping missions we prefer one day of the week above others. and we don’t take all day to do it.

Unsurprisingly, Saturday is the most popular shopping day in the Kingdom, according to the Argos survey, which was conducted in all the counties nationwide in which it operates.

Kerry shoppers spend, on average, 77 minutes visiting the shops and a majority of us, again perhaps somewhat unsurprisingly, think value-for-money is a very important consideration while perusing the shelves and catalogues. 70 per cent of Kerry respondents cited this as a major consideration.

The same percentage of Kerry shoppers polled also cited special offers and sales as major influences on their shopping habits.

Nationally, it would seem that traditional, in-the-flesh shopping is still considerably more popular than buying online. 33 per cent of respondents told Argos they visit their town centre frequently; compared to 9.4 per cent saying they frequently shop on-line using their tablets.

63 per cent meanwhile said they ‘ love the thrill’ of finding a bargain. The research - marking the 20th anniversary of Argos’ presence in Ireland also found that two-thirds of all homes in the Republic are not without an Argos catalogue. Meanwhile, the average Irish person owns at least 15 items bought in Argos.