Survey ranks Detroit third slowest city in U.S.

Metropolitan Detroit received a rather ignominious distinction in a recent survey conducted by the Mystery Shopping Providers Association (MSPA). It is the third slowest city in America for the average amount of time people spend waiting in line to check out at the grocery store, see a bank teller, purchase clothes or get a quick meal.

Only Baltimore and Washington, D.C., ranked slower.

The 2006 Wait Time Survey solicited more than 10,000 responses obtained by mystery shoppers throughout North America. It required sending experienced mystery shoppers into consumer locations rather than relying on data gathered through phone or internet-based surveys.

Consumers were asked to measure the time they spent waiting in line at the following locations: banks, clothing retailers, department stores, fast food restaurants, retail outlets and retail specialty stores. Gas station convenience stores, sit-down restaurants and grocery stores also were measured.

Detroit scored an average wait time of 4.52 (4 minutes, 52 seconds), while Baltimore’s score was 5.13 and Washington, D.C.’s was 4.58. By contrast, Phoenix, the fastest city in America, scored an average of 3.05, beating out Portland (3.30) and Minneapolis (3.41).

In addition to wait times, shoppers were asked if the amount of time they waited in line would affect their desire to return to the same location. That information was used to create a “return ratio” that helped measure the tolerance of shoppers to wait times in each city.

Not surprisingly, Detroit’s return ratio was also near the bottom of the pack, at 79.6 percent—only 79.6 percent of shoppers would return to the same location in Detroit based on the wait times.

Detroit scored better in certain retail categories. At clothing stores it ranked 19th out of 25 for wait time (5.22) and 13th in terms of return ratio (82.6 percent)—showing that customers at those stores were more tolerant of their wait times than those in cities with shorter wait times.

For department stores, Detroit ranked much higher for average wait time—10th out of 25—but dropped to 20th for the return ratio (72.2 percent). This indicates that satisfaction is much lower at department stores, where customers in Detroit expect shorter wait times than they’re getting. (A similar discrepancy was observed in the Casual/Fine Dining category).

Nationally, wait times were worst at retail categories, starting with department store average wait times (5.23) and followed by outlet stores (5.11) and clothing stores (4.55). Not surprisingly, gas station convenience stores were the fastest category, with the typical customer wait averaging 2.17.

Waits were worse for consumers later in the day. The slowest time for consumers was between 2 and 5 p.m. (average wait 4.22), followed by 5 to 8 p.m. (4.20) and 8 to 11 p.m. (4.03); 5 to 8 a.m. was best (2.40), followed by 8 to 11 a.m. (3.36) and 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. (4.02).

“The 2006 MSPA Wait Time Survey has used mystery shoppers around the U.S. to quantify the average customer’s experience when waiting in line for many of life’s everyday activities,” said John Swinburn, executive director. “Wait time is just one of dozens of areas that a mystery shopping program can measure to provide a snapshot of the customer experience to retailers, banks and restaurants.”

Complete results of the survey are available at the MSPA Web site, www.mysteryshop.org.