Spend in cultural shops and cafés

September 2022

Cultural Participation Monitor Wave 7 | Autumn 2022

This research is from The Audience Agency's nationwide longitudinal (ongoing) panel survey of changing views about participating in creative and cultural activities through the recent and ongoing crises, and beyond, the Cultural Participation Monitor.

Contents

Themes

As audiences tighten their belts, they also plan to reduce their general spend in venues' shops and cafés, though the former looks to be harder hit than the latter, where younger and highly culturally engaged visitors express a willingness to pay slightly more for greener and more ethical alternatives.

Feelings of being worse off and likely to spend less translate into less inclination to visit arts venues' gift shops and, to a lesser extent, cafés across all types of activity.

Figure 2. Column chart of percentage people expecting to visit cafes or gift shops less than pre-pandemic, by type of venue.
Figure 2. Column chart of percentage people expecting to visit cafes or gift shops less than pre-pandemic, by type of venue.
  • 26-35% say they are less likely to go to a gift shop for the different artforms than before the pandemic, while only 8-9% said they were more likely.
  • Intentions to visit venues' cafés are similar but less marked, with 21-26% less likely and 13-18% more likely to do so.
  • Shop footfall is therefore likely to fall further than café footfall.

Spending Habits in Gift Shops

People mainly buy for:

  1. themselves (53%),
  2. followed by children they're with (28%),
  3. then adults they aren't (15%).
Figure 2. Column chart of who visitors to gift shops intend to buy for.
Figure 2. Column chart of who visitors to gift shops intend to buy for.

Though these habits break down more specifically by the age of the spender:

  • the older the respondent, the less likely they are to be buying for themselves;
  • middle-aged groups are more likely than others to be buying for children they are with;
  • older respondents are more likely to be buying for children (and adults) they aren’t with.

Spending Habits in Cafés

Figure 3. Bar chart of popularity of ethical/dietary preferences in a cafe.
Figure 3. Bar chart of popularity of ethical/dietary preferences in a cafe.
Figure 4. Donut chart of how much more people are willing to pay for greener products.
Figure 4. Donut chart of how much more people are willing to pay for greener products.

At 58%, most say they are prepared to pay more for green alternatives, but few more than 20% more (28% up to 10% more; 19% 10-20% more; 11% 20-50% more).

  • Almost 4 in 10 of those who wouldn't pay more would still prefer green alternatives, if at the same price.
  • This suggests that there is scope for greener offers, but that price sensitivity remains important.
  • Willingness to pay more for green alternatives was higher among younger groups (22% of 16-24s, but only 2% of those 75+), and for those in the lowest quartile by IMD (16%, cf. 9% in the highest quartile).

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