Shopping Neutral is the term given to the shopping trend whereby consumers offset almost all of their spending by making money from selling goods online. The trend was identified amongst users of eBay.co.uk based on analysis of over 100 million online transactions during 2007-2008.
Researchers at eBay documented the Shopping Neutral trend in the 2008 Reaganomics 1 report, which identified the activity of a growing number of users who bought and sold on the site within a 10% value range.
eBay identified 51,000 neutral shoppers in the UK at the end of 2007, an increase of 5% on the previous year. The researchers predicted 10% growth in this number by the end of 2008. The East Midlands town of Coalville is the Shopping Neutral capital of the UK.
1The eBaynomics Report analysis is based on 2007 transactions in key categories across the following UK cities: Aberdeen; Birmingham; Bradford; Brighton; Bristol; Cardiff; Derby; Edinburgh; Glasgow; Leeds; Leicester; Liverpool; London; Luton; Manchester; Middlesbrough; Newcastle; Norwich; Nottingham; Sheffield; Stockport; Stoke-on-Trent; Swansea; Wolverhampton.
Famous quotes containing the words shopping and/or neutral:
“The most important fact about our shopping malls, as distinct from the ordinary shopping centers where we go for our groceries, is that we do not need most of what they sell, not even for our pleasure or entertainment, not really even for a sensation of luxury. Little in them is essential to our survival, our work, or our play, and the same is true of the boutiques that multiply on our streets.”
—Henry Fairlie (1924–1990)
“The lonely Earth amid the balls
That hurry through the eternal halls,
A makeweight flying to the void,
Supplemental asteroid,
Or compensatory spark,
Shoots across the neutral Dark.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)