Day 032 - 06 Oct 94 - Page 24


     
     1        So, it was with that view that we took Peckham, which is a
     2        fairly low income area in South London, South East London,
     3        and asked questions of respondents coming out of fastfood
     4        stores in that area.
     5
     6   Q.   Can you remember what year this was done?
     7        A.  It was undertaken in 1987, autumn 1987, the survey.
     8        I think this was published in early 1988 and, regrettably,
     9        there appears to be no date on the cover sheet.
    10
    11   Q.   I do not know whether you want to take us through the
    12        parts that you think are important?
    13        A.  Well, the obvious; if I can just bring attention to
    14        the one major fact that came out of this, which was that
    15        our fear that there were high consumption eaters, that is
    16        to say, people using fastfood stores at a much greater
    17        rate than the average would lead one to believe, was
    18        confirmed; we found, amongst those using fastfood stores,
    19        that there were, indeed, a fair proportion who are using
    20        those types of stores several times a week and, indeed,
    21        nearly a third using them virtually every day.
    22
    23   Q.   Are those the figures that are on page 1:  "87 per cent of
    24        fastfood eaters claim to eat fastfood at least once a week
    25        with 31 per cent of fastfood eaters saying they ate
    26        fastfood every day"?
    27        A.  Yes, that is correct.  For precision, it was actually
    28        30.5, as you will see at the bottom of the table that
    29        follows.
    30
    31   Q.   It might be worth just turning to page 11 so we get an
    32        idea of the numbers of people surveyed and which
    33        particular stores they were questioned at -- sorry, where
    34        were people questioned?
    35        A.  Yes.  This survey was undertaken by, as I say, a
    36        student and, indeed, a colleague of hers that came to give
    37        her some assistance.  These were two young women.  We did
    38        not feel it appropriate to have them standing outside
    39        fastfood stores in the evening.  So, they basically asked
    40        people coming out at lunch time and during the afternoon.
    41        By "afternoon" I meant post school coming out time around
    42        3.30 to 5.00.
    43
    44   Q.   So people were questioned as they were coming out of
    45        school?
    46        A.  They were questioned as they came out of the stores;
    47        the four stores chosen, as you can see from the list, were
    48        McDonald's, Wimpy, Kentucky Fried Chicken and a local fish
    49        and chip shop.  The numbers interviewed are given there;
    50        it is just over the hundred for McDonald's in total. 
    51 
    52   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Do you think it possible that if you 
    53        question at lunch time people who are coming out of a
    54        fastfood outlet you are likely, more likely, to find a
    55        significant proportion who use them a lot and, I can
    56        imagine, fall into the habit of going to the same place,
    57        wherever it is, for lunch if, for instance, you are coming
    58        out of your office, or wherever; whereas if you are just
    59        coming out of the cinema you go to once a month at half
    60        past ten at night or going in at half past 7 before the

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