MOSCOW, 3 July 2023. Russian Public Opinion Research Center (VCIOM) presents the findings of a survey on the Russian visits to shopping malls as part of VCIOM’s special project in cooperation with RIA Novosti.

Who goes to shopping malls?

By and large, 71% of the Russians go to the malls (75% in 2018). Over the recent five years the percentage of the Russians who visit the malls once a month or more often has not changed: 53% today and in 2018. At the same time, the share of those who do not go to the malls has grown by 6 p.p. over the five years (29% in 2023; 23% in 2018).  

…and what for?

The basic reason why the Russians go to the malls is to buy groceries or clothes and durables (71% and 65% respectively).  Food courts are less popular among mall visitors (39%). This is followed by entertainment - cinema (26%), children’s play area (25%), meeting friends (23%), leisure activities (11%). Conventionally “healthy” ways of spending time at the malls are less common: 9% do sports or fitness; 6% attend education events.

Men and women go to the malls for the same reasons; the only difference is that women tend to go there for durables (68% vs. 61%). Respondents in different age groups have varying strategies of going to the malls, but shopping remain at the top:

• Visitors aged 18-24: “shopping, food court and leisure activities for themselves” strategy. They tend to go to the mall for leisure and entertainment; every second goes to the cinema (49% among those the same age); 44% see friends; 26% attend entertainment activities; 19% do sports.
• Visitors aged 25-34: “shopping, food court, leisure activities for themselves and kids” strategy. Entertainment component is still present, for example seeing friends (38%), going to cafes and restaurants (57%), but it is less common than among young respondents aged under 25.  This very group shows keen interest in kids’ play areas — 34% (vs. 6% among those aged 18-24).
• Visitors aged 35-44: “shopping, food court and leisure activities for kids” strategy. Activities for children is extremely popular in this group (37%). The remainder leisure activities are less common: 20% see friends (vs 44% of the 18-24-year-olds); 28% go to the cinema (vs. 49% of the 18-24-year-olds).
• Visitors aged 45-59: “mainly shopping and food court” strategy. The share of those who take children to the malls for entertainment is declining (22%). Only 6% show interest in other leisure activities.
• Visitors aged 60 and older: “mainly shopping” strategy; 81% go to the malls for groceries; 49%, for durables; 18% visit food court, which is the lowest share across all the age groups.

Household income influences visits to malls. Visitors with good income spend time doing a variety of activities at the malls; they are more likely to shop for durables (66% vs. 55% of those with poor financial situation), attend entertainment activities (16% vs. 10%), food courts (46% vs. 36%), twice as likely to go to the cinema  (30% vs. 16%) and spend time with friends (26% vs. 11%); they also often take kids to children’s play areas (24% vs. 16%).

What about shopping?

Most of the respondents do not think that the product assortment has changed over recent six months (61%); 23% say the variety of goods has become less diverse; 10% say the opposite. Those who say that the assortment has become scarcer are the 25-34-year-olds (36%), active Internet users (34%), persons with incomplete higher and higher education (31%) and those who have low income (34%). The bigger the size of the settlement, the more often the respondents complain about scarce product range (14% in rural area and 31% in both capitals).

Every second mall visitor (49%) say that most of the goods are available today; another 42%, that any item is available. Six percent point to goods shortage (13% of the 25-34-year-olds).

According to the mall visitors, you need to have about nine thousand rubles when you go to the mall (9,524 rub.); 8% consider that you can go there even without money. Respondents aged 60+ and young persons aged 18-24 mention smaller sums of money (6,731 rub and 7,807 rub, respectively); respondents aged 45-59 take the biggest sums (12,186 rub). Remarkably, mall visitors with high income cited smaller sums of money than those who consider their financial situation to be bad (8,852 rubles and 12,560 rubles, respectively).

VCIOM-Sputnik Russian nationwide telephone survey was conducted 8 July, 2023. A total of 1,600 Russians aged 18 and over took part in the survey. Survey method: telephone interviews, stratified random sample based on a complete list of mobile phone numbers in use in Russia. The data were weighted for socio-demographic characteristics. The margin of error at a 95% confidence level does not exceed 2.5%. In addition to sampling error, minor changes to the wording of questions and different circumstances arising during the fieldwork can introduce bias into the survey.

 Key effectiveness indicators, survey of July 8, 2023:  cooperation rate (CR)* = 0.7973; minimum response rate (MRR)** = 0.0159; response rate (RR)*** = 0.1019. Calculations are based on the corporate standard: https://profi.wciom.ru/principy_standarty/korporativnyj-standart-po-izmereniyu-rezultativnosti-oprosov-sputnik-vciom/

* CR: the number of complete interviews divided by the sum of: а) complete interviews and b) non-interviews with eligible respondents.

** MRR: the number of complete interviews divided by the sum of: а) complete interviews, b) interrupted interviews after successful screening and c) all the respondents where it is unknown whether they meet the selected criteria or not.

** RR is calculated in the same way as MRR, with the only difference that the number of respondents with unknown eligibility decreases proportional to the percentage of eligible cases in the total number of respondents with identified eligibility or non-eligibility.