The following analysis contains data for the devices at S.C. Fuller, Renee’s Health Food Store, Dorking Light & Shade and Westcott & Williams.
- Coming into August the majority of retail and leisure businesses were permitted to reopen.
- One large change in August was the Eat Out to Help Out scheme run by the government whereby restaurants taking part could offer a 50% discount on food from Monday to Wednesday.
- This was expected to change the footfall profile throughout the week as diners had an incentive to eat out at the start of the week, however the data for the footfall devices below shows that there was no dramatic effect in Dorking.
- Footfall declined across the devices in Dorking at the start of the month, before picking up again in the final 2 weeks of the month, potentially due do the bank holiday, causing shoppers to delay their spending. This also may be as a result of residents leaving Dorking to go on UK holidays while the weather was warmer at the start of the month.
Eat Out to Help Out Analysis
- We expected the Eat Out to Help Out scheme to increase footfall on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays in August, however the figure above shows that the share of weekly footfall has in fact declined on these days when compared to the footfall seen in July.
- With many restaurants in Dorking offering the government backed scheme there were no shortage of places for diners to make use the offer, however the spread of footfall appears to have grown on Fridays and Saturdays in August.
- A possible explanation for this could be that the devices that are recording these 2 months of footfall data (S.C. Fuller and Renee’s Health Food Store) aren’t located near to large clusters of restaurants, and thus footfall is actually being drawn to other locations around the town centre on these days where the density of restaurants offering the scheme is higher.
Overall footfall volume
- Figure 2 shows the weekly footfall throughout August for active footfall devices.
- Footfall generally declines in weeks 31, 32 and 33, before rising up again in weeks 34 and 35.
Week-on-week change in footfall
- Figure 3 highlights again the ‘V’ shaped trend that occurred throughout August.
- Nearly all devices experienced week-on-week declines in the first half of the month, and all experienced week-on-week increases in the last 2 weeks.
- One reason for the dip in footfall at the start of August is the late bank holiday causing a delay on spend.
- Another factor could be the warmer weather at the start of the month seeing more on holiday and returning later in August as school holidays come to a close.
