Fill Your Boots!

LUTON, United Kingdom - The unprecedented sales and deals available on the high street and in shopping centres across the UK has created a reverse shopping trend - as 67% of shoppers say they are less likely to shop online in order to drive out for a spending spree.

According to Vauxhall who carried out the research of 3,000 UK adults, there is a new kind of on the road shopper called FYBs (Fill Your Booters) who are exploiting the sales opportunities created by retailers desperate to entice shoppers in the post-Christmas, credit crunch climate

The most extreme FYB’s are the 8% of the population, equivalent to 1.7 million shoppers and predominantly female, who reveal they are driving out to the sales 4-7 times each WEEK. 60% of shoppers are making at least one weekly drive to the sales to seek out the latest offers.

The research reveals 5% of motorists, equivalent to 2.16 million people, have done a round trip of over 50 miles to go on a FYB spree. On average each UK motorist has each covered at least 15 miles to go on an FYB spree – totalling 647 million miles driven in the UK since Christmas to fill their boots in retail sales.

Exactly half (50%) of those surveyed said they derived a high sense of achievement and pleasure driving home with a boot full of bargains. That figure rises to 55% in the under-35’s. Maybe it’s the arrival of the car friendly Westfield shopping centre with 4,000 spaces, but Vauxhall’s stats reveal that London (57%) is the UK region where most people get an FYB buzz from filling their car boot in the sales.

According to Simon Ewart of Vauxhall, “Every day there’s new sales and reductions appearing on the high street and at shopping centres. The statistics prove that more people are getting more pleasure from repeat outings by car to the shops to snap these up and satisfaction from a car boot full of savings rather than surf online and miss out”