Designing London’s Recovery

Thank you to everyone who took part in our survey.  

We’ve analysed what you told us and shared it with City Hall’s Economic Strategy & Innovation team. Between September and October 2022, they shared our survey findings with two innovation teams taking part in City Hall’s Designing London’s Recovery programme to develop solutions to challenges in London: 

• Pupils Profit took part in the challenge to create refill shops within schools, aiming to teach schoolchildren how to staff the shops and help the wider community reduce their plastic waste.
• Kingston University took part in the programme to help women start ethnic food businesses, aiming to develop training and work-experience to help women fulfil their food enterprises. 

Here’s what Pupils Profit said about our survey:  

Below is a summary of what you told us: 

Refill shops

Over half of you have never shopped at a refill shop (58%) or used a refill station at a supermarket or convenience store (74%). Those who have shopped at a refill shop tend to do so once a month or less.  

Of those of you who do shop in refill shops or at refill stations, you told us that you do so mainly to reduce your use of plastic (91%). You also said that you would use refill shops to support a small or independent business (59%) or to save money (21%).  

For those of you that don’t shop in refill shops or at refill stations, the biggest reason for this is that there are none near you (67%). Some of you prefer to shop online (21%) whilst 19% of you felt it was inconvenient to bring your own containers into the shop.  

You tend to choose where to shop for groceries and essentials by the location of the shop (58%), price (43%) and quality of products (41%).  

You would be most likely to buy loose food such as pasta and grains (58%) from a refill shop or refill station. You would also be likely to buy loose refillable household or cleaning products (56%) and loose toiletries (33%). 

Refill shops in schools

Those of you who are parents of school-aged children divide on whether you would use a refill shop based in your children’s school. Although 48% of you said you were likely to use a refill shop based in your children’s school, 45% of you said you would be unlikely to use the shop. 

Those of you who are not parents of school-aged children were less inclined to use a refill shop based in a school near you. 38% of you said that you were likely to use the shop, whilst 48% of you said that you were unlikely to use the shop.

Whilst 25% of you shop in the international section of a supermarket once a week, only 12% of you shop in an ethnic food shop once a week.  

You choose to either shop at an ethnic food shop or international section of a supermarket based on the location of the shop (53%), the range of products (38%) and the prices (23%).  

Those of you who shop at ethnic food shops told us that your main reason for doing so is to buy speciality food (75%). You also want to support small or independent businesses (34%) and explore different cultures (27%). 

When shopping in an ethnic food shop, you are most likely to buy sauces, oils, spices or dressings (74%). You are also likely to buy fruit or vegetables (42%), and rice, pasta and noodles (33%).  

You are more likely to visit ethnic food shops to buy products from different cultures or nationalities (62%) than to buy products from your own culture or nationality (12%). 

Your impact

The Mayor’s Designing London’s Recovery programme came to an end on 4 November 2022 with a show and tell meeting. The innovators from Pupils Profit and Kingston University presented their findings to other innovators taking part in the programme, as well as a panel of experts and wider stakeholders. The two innovation teams are now writing a report on their research, to be published shortly on the London.gov.uk website.

The innovators from Pupils Profit are now hoping to partner with local authorities and schools to teach pupils how to set up refill shops in their own schools. The innovators from Kingston University will be using our data to help them map out food provision in London.