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Keeping Mum: over a 3rd of
UK mums never hear their children tell them they love her
MOTHER'S Day is around the corner (if
you haven't got it in your diary already, firstly, what is wrong with you? And
secondly, it's the 26 March 2017, so children, young and old, across the land,
will be gearing up to spoil our mums on the day itself. Or will they?
Digital marketing agency Optus Digital carried out a survey of 1,000 people to
find out their attitudes to Mother's Day in general. And, shockingly, they found
that well over a ⅓ of us; 37.4%; never tell our mums we love them. The
worst offenders are men; 48% will never say I love you mum, compared to 28% of
women. Over a quarter of us tell our mums every day (27.7%, of which over a
third are women) and 15.8% tell her a few times a month. Sadly, 45% of us will
not make the effort to visit our mum's this Mother's Day. Again, the majority of
these are men (52%). And while our busy, stressed out, beleaguered and
hard working mammas deserve a day off and a massive treat for looking after us
since birth / still doing all our washing / always slipping us a fiver when we
go home to pick up our washing, they might not always get what they deserve. As
the advertising industry cranks up its campaign to get us all buying decadent
bouquets of flowers, massive boxes of chocolates, or take her out for a fancy
meal, some of us, shall we say, try and skimp on the surprise.
Optus Digital decided to root out the biggest Mother's Day skinflints in the
country. They studied online search engine statistics to find out who has looked
for cheap Mother's Day gifts, using search terms like (obviously) 'cheap
Mother's Day gifts', 'free Mother's Day gifts' and 'Mother's
Day gifts under £10'! (In fact, nationally, last year, there were more searches
for 'free Mother's Day gifts' than 'Mother's Day flowers!')
Optus Digital looked at the 20 biggest cities in the UK, then ranked them in
order of meanest to slightly more generous. So who comes out on 'top'?
Well, it seems the biggest tightwads are from Southampton, with the most
searches to try and save cash. And in 2nd place is another nearby coastal
town, Bournemouth! The next 3 are all up north: Newcastle, followed by Liverpool
and Manchester. Scots clearly care for their mamaidhs, as Glasgow and Edinburgh
rank 10th and 16th on the list. And the most 'generous' (well, by
comparison)? That'll be people from Stoke, who are number at 20.
They also found out attitudes to Mother's Day in general. And, perhaps not that
surprisingly, it's women who are more likely to have the date written down in
indelible ink in their diaries; 75% of women never forget the date, compared to
blokes; only 47% of them remember. And, perhaps realising how rubbish their kids
can be, 60% of mums said they never expect a gift on Mother's Day, while 13.6%
of those who got one, actually returned it! It sounds like we need to up our
game when it comes to showing our mums how much they mean to us. "From our extensive online research, it looks like we're a bit neglectful
of the most important women in our lives! Hopefully these findings will act as a bit of a wakeup
call for all these ungrateful kids around the country; you only get one mum, so
you'd better make her feel special!" says Chris Simmance from
Optus Digital. |
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Better by bus
BUS users are reminded that Solo is
changing and they can benefit from improvements to bus travel from April 2017.
Monday, 3 April 2017, will see the removal of
'zones' as all Solo ticket types will be
valid for use across Merseyside which means bus users can travel on any bus,
anywhere for one price, giving them greater freedom to travel across Merseyside
as many times as they want with 1 ticket.
Solo ticketing would also become simpler for everyone as customers would not
have to work out which zone they need and it could support greater access to
work and leisure opportunities.
The new fare structure means that fares would be up to a ⅓ cheaper for
people who currently buy all area tickets, resulting in significant savings for
those customers.
In terms of the new price structure, 7 out of 8, 1 area prices will increase in
line with inflation to a maximum of 0.3% above or below RPI (set at 1.9%) and
could be off set by the significant benefits customers will experience.
Usually approved price changes for Solo season tickets are applied annually in
January along with other ticket products.
However, in January 2017, it was agreed
to freeze these prices to avoid 2 price increases for Solo products during 2017.
Customers have already been benefitting from the prices being maintained at 2016
prices for the 1st 3 months of 2017.
Bus users who buy a 'One Area Adult 4 Weekly Solo' will experience a marginal
price increase, but would benefit from being able to travel across the whole of
Merseyside as often as they want within a 4 week period.
A Young Person's 4 Weekly ticket will also be introduced to support young
people and would contribute towards making travel more accessible for young
people and would be a welcome addition to the ticket offers already available,
including the £2 My Ticket.
Merseytravel Committee Chair Cllr Liam Robinson said:- "This is another
innovative step forward in improving the bus offer for the City Region and not
just for existing users, but for encouraging potential new users to give it a
try.
Reviewing zonal structures and pricing to simplify the customer ticket offer is
a key objective of the Bus Alliance, a formal agreement between Merseytravel,
Arriva and Stagecoach and aim to get more people travelling by bus which drives
up investment potential to benefit all who use them. We know from the Transport
Focus Bus Passenger survey results announced yesterday that the new customer
focussed improvements, including on board Wi-Fi, that have been introduced are
having a positive effect. The changes to Solo are another way of driving up
customer satisfaction levels and fare paying patronage by encouraging more
people to try the bus." |
