Argos reveals UK’s first pavement ‘Fast Track’ Lane

Britain’s first ever ‘Fast Track’ pedestrian shopping lane has been exclusively unveiled today in response to new research which found that almost half (47 per cent) the nation cite the slow pace of high streets as their biggest shopping bugbear.

According to the research commissioned by Argos, pavement hoggers (31 per cent) and dawdling pedestrians (27 per cent) aren’t the only factors that Brits have to contend with whilst on the high street. The nation’s top ten shopping bugbears include:

1 - Pavement hoggers
2 - Dawdling pedestrians
3 - Battling through crowds
4 - Carrying heavy shopping bags
5 - Middle of the street chattering
6 - People checking their phones
7 - Traffic dodging
8 - Navigating huge stores
9 - Waiting in queues
10 - Rude staff

In addition to unearthing shopping frustrations, Argos asked the nation how the UK high street could look in 50 years’ time. Findings show that a fifth of Brits hope that their favourite shops will predict what household items they need and deliver them to their doorstep automatically. More than five million people predict personalised shop windows showcasing targeted offers and products will feature on the future high street. 20 per cent also expect to see electronic trollies to carry heavy shopping bags.

With 28.8 million Britons saying they would like a pavement fast lane installed on their local high street to ensure less time is spent dodging the masses, Argos has launched the UK’s first ever crowd-bypassing pavement lane. The trial comes a month after Argos launched the first nationwide same-day Fast Track delivery and in as little as 60 seconds in-store collection services to speed up shopping for the nation.

Set in the middle of bustling Liverpool One, shoppers will be testing out the experimental pavement fast lane for one week only from today, Monday 2 until Sunday 8 November. The brand new lane will allow the swift and the speedy to navigate their way through the shopping centre without being held up by the dawdling and distracted.

Independent retail expert Dr Alastair Moore said: “Perusing the high street is one of my favourite past times but I do have my own shopping bugbears, from middle of the street chattering to battling through the crowds. As the research demonstrates, a faster high street could vastly improve the overall shopping experience for British shoppers across the UK. The pedestrianised ‘Fast Track’ lane is a great way of making this possible and with nearly 30 million Brits saying they’d like one on their own high street, the pilot is set to be a success.”

Andy Brown, Central Operations Director at Argos, added: “We know that speed is a major factor for time-poor shoppers and that’s why we have launched the UK’s first Fast Track nationwide same-day delivery and in as little as 60 seconds in-store collection services last month. Shoppers have also told us that speed is critical when simply getting around the high street or town centre, so we want to test consumer reaction to a dedicated pavement fast lane. We hope it alleviates some of the biggest shopping high street frustrations.”

Source : Home Retail Group Press Release
http://homeretailgroup.pressarea.com/pressrelease/details/73/News_1/5264#sthash.dTjJQZ9T.dpuf