Slow Cities Shopped

Baltimore is the slowest city in America, according to a recent survey conducted by the Mystery Shopping Providers Association (MSPA). And we're not talking here about downshifting and the 'Slow' movement, we're talking more generic slow movement – waiting in lines at the grocery store, banks, clothes shops and restaurants.

The 2006 Wait Time Survey, commissioned by mystery shopping trade association the MSPA, classified the 25 most populous US cities based on more than 10,000 responses from mystery shoppers.

Shoppers measured the time they spent waiting in line at banks, clothing retailers, department stores, fast food restaurants, sit-down restaurants and grocery stores. This included gas station convenience stores, retail outlets, and retail specialty stores.

Phoenix comes out as the fastest city in America, with an average wait time of 3.05 (3 minutes, 5 seconds), beating ortland, OR (3.30) and Minneapolis (3.41). Rivals New York City and Los Angeles tied for 21st out of 25 cities in terms of overall wait time at 4.31, beating only Detroit (4.52), Washington, DC (4.58) and Baltimore (5.13).

In addition to wait times, shoppers were asked if the amount of time they waited in line would affect their desire to return to the same location. This information was used to create a 'Return Ratio' that helped to measure the tolerance of shoppers to wait times in each city. Not surprisingly, Baltimore had the worst return ratio of the 25 cities, at 77.3%. This means that only 77.3% of shoppers would return to the same location in Baltimore based on the wait time. In some cases cities ranked very differently on the two aspects – for example, Cleveland tied for 10th out of 25 cities in average wait time, came 23rd in terms of return ratio, suggesting higher expectations or more impatient shoppers. Similarly, San Francisco tied for 10th for wait time but falls to 20th in the ranking for return ratio. Shoppers in Miami and Pittsburgh show the opposite tendency.

According to John Swinburn, MSPA Executive Director, results will help 'business owners who want to understand how their companies are stacking up against industry and city averages.' However, he cautions that wait time is 'just one of dozens of areas' affecting overall customer experience, and which can be measured by a mystery shopping program.

Gas station convenience stores were the fastest category, with the typical customer wait averaging 2 minutes 17 seconds. The slowest time for consumers is between 2 and 5pm, when the average wait is 4.22, and the fastest 5 to 8am at just 2 minutes 40.

The MSPA is online at www.mysteryshop.org .

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas, 2024- by Nick Thomas, unless otherwise stated.