This is revealed by research of trainee Sacco Barendrecht under supervision of Goudappel Coffeng. Although the scale of the research is modest, the results agree with previous research demonstrating that cyclists are important customers of supermarkets.
At four suburban supermarkets Sacco Barendrecht interviewed people on how and how often they visited the supermarket and which mode of transportation they used. That provided data , among others, on length of stay per mode of transportation and the relationship between expenditure at the shop and length of stay, data that may later be used to further enhance the bicycle parking indicators.
The questions revealed that cyclists visit the supermarket on average 3.2 times a week. They usually spend not much over 50 euro each time. Motorists visit on average 2.5 times and spend a little more. Over an entire week at these four peripheral supermarkets cyclists account for 48 % of turnover, motorists for 52 %.
SOAB consultants recently conducted research among well over 2800 supermarkets demonstrating the same trend. According to that research non-motorists (cyclists and pedestrians) contribute most to weekly supermarket turnover.
Meanwhile neighbourhood shops are steadily losing ground. According to a recent study by the Amsterdam Dienst Onderzoek en Statistiek neighbourhood shops are highly valued. And a quarter of all daily shopping expenses is spent in neighbourhood shops. Nevertheless, their numbers have been dwindling for years, in particular neighbourhoods shops away from main shopping streets are struggling. In 1975 there were some 7347 neighbourhood shops in Amsterdam, in 2010 that had decreased to 3227. The number of supermarkets has increased little (to 131 at present),but the number of people employed in supermarkets has clearly grown. In 2010 over twice as many people work in supermarkets as in 1975. This indicates that it is mainly a matter of increase in scale.