Where’s your favourite place to get your basics, from food to alcohol and even electronics? Maybe you have moved to the modern day online shopping, but many others get whatever they need through traditional means.

Like actually going to the shops.

It’s the time of the year when The Times Sowetan Shopper Survey, conducted on behalf of Times Media by TNS, is released.

And this year once again shows that Shoprite the all time favourite.

According to Business Tech:

The Shopper Survey scoreboard is determined by measuring three key indicators amongst consumers:  brand awareness and familiarity; user ratings and non-user perceptions; and the size of a retailer brand in the market determined by asking consumers which retailers they frequent, and how often.

TNS polled 2,750 consumers in both metropolitan and non-metropolitan areas, using random suburb sampling.

The sample population was representative of all race groups, with male and female participants being over 18 years old.

Nuala Harris-Morele, Director at Kantar TNS, released a statement along with the results, saying:

The economic impact of the last year has definitely been felt by consumers and is evident across the Shopper Survey this year. However, this is not to say they have stopped spending entirely, but rather that they are making trade-offs and being savvier about their purchases.

For example, while clothing stores (women’s, men’s, kids and baby) saw a decrease in category usage ranging from 1% to 3%, home accessories saw a 2% increase, and impressively bed stores saw a 4% increase. Within these categories, consumers are opting for stores that provide credit facilities.

The building or hardware stores category saw a 5% increase, and it was also the highest category shopped at last, in the shopper dynamics mobile survey.

Here are the results of the 2016 The Times Sowetan Shopper Survey, showing the top three:

Don’t agree? Perhaps you think it’s a bad case of brand loyalty or uninformed shoppers.

I’d have to say it has to do with convenience, ease of credit access and legit opening times.

On the other hand, here are SA’s favourite brands.

[source:businesstech]