In March, using the example of six large cities in Poland, we checked how their inhabitants comply with the recommendation to stay at home during a pandemic. The pandemic has definitely affected our ways of moving. It turned out that more than half of the inhabitants of selected cities do not move further than 500 m from their area of residence. For 16 weeks, from 6 February to 31 May, footfall in commercial locations was also analyzed - it did not return to the level before the pandemic began in Europe. Hypermarkets recorded the biggest drops but were quickly recovering. Poles most often shopped at discounters, and local and neighborhood stores were not the biggest beneficiaries, as it might seem. There were indications that a return to pre-pandemic levels would continue for some time if any.
Based on the observation of visits to selected categories of locations by smartphone users, Selectivv has prepared a new report. It describes changes in the situation of shopping centers (97 locations), public transport (14,961 locations), restaurants (1,949 locations), entertainment (296 locations), and sports and recreation (437 locations). The locations are located in Warsaw, the Upper Silesian-Zagłębie Metropolis, Kraków, and Łódź over the last year. The results were presented in the form of a monthly index, with the value of 100 (the initial value) being the data for October 2019. 2. The total sample amounted to 984,068 unique users.
Parks were the only category with more visitors over the course of the study. They have more than tripled in comparison to October 2020 to October 2019. In other categories, declines were visible, the highest for: swimming pools, nightclubs, restaurants, cinemas, theaters. Here you can see how the current situation has affected the number of visitors to commercial locations.
The park’s lowest level of footfall was recorded in October 2020. The highest levels were recorded in August 2020 (344.31), July (251.80), and October 2020 (344.06). We were the least likely to visit parks in October 2019 (index 100) and in January and February 2020 (101.01 and 112.42). So, this is the only category that has not seen a coronavirus-related decline.
For the gym, October 2019 is the month of the highest traffic intensity during the entire research period. From November to March, the index declines (to the level of 38.08). The reasons for the decline were most likely in the natural cycles of the economic situation, caused by holidays, holidays, etc. In the following months, there was an increase (to 51.85 in July) and dropped significantly to the level of 11.38 in September. The data for October was very interesting: an increase of more than half of the value from October 2019 (54.30) was recorded.
Contrary to gyms, more users of mobile devices visited swimming pools in November, December 2019, and February 2020 compared to October 2019. In October, the index dropped to a record low level (17.39), the lowest among all the categories surveyed.
Public transport (understood as stops) recorded its first drops in March and April 2020, during the lockdown period. Then, from May to July, we observed increases (the highest result in June 2020 - index 119). In August, there was a big drop to the level of 51.35. It was probably related to holiday trips, the peak of which was recorded during other surveys just in August this year. The downward trend continued in September and October (index 46.62).
For restaurants, the situation is even worse than in the first quarter of 2020. The index in October was 2020 - 22.61, while in March 2020 (and therefore also the first incomplete month of restrictions) - 46.09. Nowadays, gastronomic locations are at a very difficult time. December and January are months of increased traffic in these facilities (based on data for 2019). Therefore, lifting the restrictions by the end of November would be very important for the industry. Unfortunately, the pandemic is currently increasing the restrictions due to the deteriorating situation. We wrote before about the other changes in the shopping habits of Polish people.
Nigh Clubs / Discos: the index of visiting such establishments in November, December, and January were over 100 points. They were respectively: 109.48, 135.40, and 103.24. Even before the pandemic started in Poland, it dropped to the level of 43.14 in February 2020. In April and May, declines were again visible, which after a period of increases were recorded again in August, until a drop to the level of 18.57 in October 2020. We have already written about the holiday travels of Poles in the articles from August and from March.
